Iraqi constitution draft delayed as Kurds make new demands
Iraq, Politics, 8/16/2005

Leaders of the parliamentary blocs and the political forces continued the last minute meetings in order to contain differences over the draft of the constitution, just few hours before the grace period set for submitting it to the parliament.

The Iraqi National Assembly ( parliament) postponed for the second time its special session to receive the draft of the Iraqi constitution and considering it on late Monday evening, at a time when the last minute discussions between the political forces which have been continuous until now did not succeed in bridging the gap of differences.

The meeting was attended by the Interim Iraqi President, Jalal al-Talibani, and the prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and the Kurdish leader Masoud al-Barazani, the leader of the Iraqi united coalition Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. They were to be joined by representatives for the Arab Sunni.

Member of the parliamentary committee in charge of writing the constitution Munzir al-Fadel said that there are two options before the leaders of the meeting blocs leaders. He explained that the first oprion is represented in providing the draft constitution to the presidency of the parliament incomplete together with observations on it with amendments to be introduced in the few coming days. He added that the sceond option is to submit the draft constitution upon completition.

For his part, the Kurdish member in the constitution writing committee Mahmoud Othman said there are three outlets for the current crisis "Either to submit the draft constitution, or not to submit it, and the parliament would be desolved, or the state's administration law is amended in order to get more time to reconcile pending problems and write the draft constitution.

This last option was adopted, and the committee requested a one week extension to finish the constitution. The negotiations under way on Iraq's new constitution are an example of "democracy at work," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the progress that has been achieved in addressing difficult issues and forging a consensus over the past several months should carry the constitutional process through to completion in the coming days.

Rice addressed journalists August 15 just hours after Iraq's constitutional committee requested and received, by unanimous approval from the Transitional National Assembly, a seven-day extension on its deadline for completing a draft constitution.

"These people are working very, very hard," Rice said. "They are working very long hours. But what that says is that they are really committed to putting together a document that they believe in, a document that can be a foundation for a free and democratic Iraq for all Iraqis." Rice said the constitutional committee has made substantial progress in addressing all of the outstanding issues and added, "They are very much focused on a course that will bring this to a conclusion at the end of seven days."

Meantime, In a new development relating to the draft constitution in Iraq, hundreds of Kurds and Arabs demonstrated on Monday in the center of Irbil, north Iraq, demanding the annexation of Makhmour city situated between Irbil and Musil and Karkouk to Kurdistan.

The demonstrators gathered in front of the building of the Iraq Kurdistan parliament raising Kurdish flags and banners calling on the Iraqi government to return back the Kurdish areas to the Kurdistan district, including in particular Makhmour district which was annexed by the former Iraqi regime to Ninwa area.

Previous Stories:
  ABC: US ambassador to Iraq optimistic about draft constitution   (8/15/2005)
  Agreements on drafting Iraqi constitution expected   (8/15/2005)
  UN extended mission in Iraq   (8/12/2005)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search