Iraqis fail to agree on constitution
Parliament votes to extend deadline by seven days
BAGHDAD -- Iraqi factional leaders failed to meet yesterday's deadline for drafting a constitution in an often-rancorous debate that appeared to have widened rifts among Shi'ite, Sunni, Kurdish, and secular groups while slipping from a timeline pushed hard by the United States as it eyes future troop withdrawals.
Unable to resolve differences on major issues such as the role of religion by the midnight deadline, political leaders turned to Iraq's transitional Parliament for a one-week extension, winning unanimous agreement with 23 minutes to spare.
Iraqi officials presented the extension as a success. They smiled and shook hands among themselves and with US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who strolled on the floor of Parliament ahead of the late-night vote.
''This, to my mind, is real democracy and proves to the world that Iraq is writing its own constitution," National Assembly speaker Hachem Hassani told members of Parliament.
''Efforts have been made to reach agreements, but this is a historic issue that needs more study," President Jalal Talabani told lawmakers. ''We need more time."
Political leaders had promised constitutional delegates they would reach accord if they had the extra week, said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish delegate to the country's constitutional committee. ''I hope they will achieve that."
The insurgency opposed to Iraq's US-backed government made its voice heard before the vote, sending at least two mortar rounds in the direction of the National Assembly late last night. The US military said no damage or injuries were reported in the concrete-walled Green Zone where the assembly meets.
US officials had pressed openly and strenuously for Iraq to make the deadline, highlighted by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's late-July trip to Iraq in which he reminded Iraqi leaders of the daily US military deaths here.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak Rubaie, said yesterday he still expected the number of US forces to be below 100,000 by early spring. About 138,000 American forces are now in Iraq.
With hopes of an agreement fading by early yesterday, Western officials were pointing to interpretations of the country's interim US-written charter that they said would allow more time for the drafting. Delegates were presented with two versions of a draft constitution, one from Hassani and one from constitutional committee chairman Humam Hammoudi. Neither managed to close the gaps.
While political leaders haggled in a final try last evening, repeatedly delaying the scheduled convening of the National Assembly to approve the document, bored-looking assembly members lounged and snapped pictures of each other with cellphone cameras. State television, poised to air the historic National Assembly session, instead broadcast seldom-seen footage of torture and executions carried out by the government of President Saddam Hussein.
Iraqi leaders remained divided over key issues, among them federalism and the desire by Kurds to formalize the autonomy in place in northern Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Many Kurdish leaders expanded the demand to include, at a minimum, constitutional recognition of the Kurds' right to independence should they choose it. Opposition to a separate Kurdistan by neighboring nations, however, makes such a break practically impossible. ''There will be no constitution" with Kurdish self-determination, warned Jalaladeen Sagheer, a constitutional committee member, Shi'ite Muslim cleric, and member of the country's largest political party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
At the same time, a split emerged among Shi'ite blocs, with the supreme council calling for the creation of what would be an oil-rich, Shi'ite-led superstate in the south, over the objections of the Dawa party, the political organization of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
Sunni Arab delegates opposed federalism for the largely Shi'ite south, saying it would split Iraq and leave the Sunni minority with an impoverished substate in the west and center.
Politicians were also divided over how great a role religious law should have in the constitution. A secular female delegate, Raja Khuzae, said agreement had been reached that would allow Iraqis an alternative to religious law in matters such as marriage and divorce. Other delegates disagreed.
Iraq's interim charter gave the National Assembly until Aug. 15 to write the draft of a permanent constitution. Iraqis were then to ratify the document in a vote Oct. 15, and then elect a full-term government on Dec. 15. 