Sunnis seek further delay on charter

BAGHDAD -- Political groups representing Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs called yesterday for new delays in approving a national constitution, protesting that they had been cut out of final-hour negotiations between Shi'ite Muslims and Kurds, and asking US and UN officials to intervene.

The transitional National Assembly is scheduled to approve a final draft of Iraq's first democratic constitution today after missing last Monday's deadline.

Shi'ites and Kurds, both long oppressed during Saddam Hussein's regime by a strong central government dominated by Sunnis, have written a draft that creates a federal system allowing for greater regional autonomy. Sunnis have staunchly opposed building such federalism into the constitution, fearing it will lead to the fracturing of Iraq into separate countries.

''We need more time to negotiate," Sheik Abdel Nasser Janabi, a leading Sunni negotiator, said yesterday.

''I see an attempt to exclude the Arab Sunnis."

Yesterday, Shi'ites and Kurds seemed to be moving toward using their majority in the National Assembly to approve a draft of the constitution over objections by Sunnis. Although some Shi'ite negotiators were publicly expressing hope that they would achieve a consensus with Sunnis and meet today's deadline, Sunni leaders protested that they had been invited to only one meeting in a week.

''The meetings have not been serious ones, and time is running out," said a leading Sunni negotiator, Saleh Mutlaq. ''We do not want a constitution that is molded in the final moments and then thrust upon us to sign."

In response, Sunnis and some disgruntled Shi'ites are threatening to take the fight to the polls to defeat the constitution when it is presented to voters in a referendum scheduled for Oct. 15.

''Everyone is getting ready for a big battle," said Hassan Bazzaz, a political science professor at the University of Baghdad.

A source close to the talks, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of negotiations, said Shi'ite and Kurdish representatives had basically abandoned hopes of a three-way accord. The Sunni position, he said, is ''directly contrary to what the others want."

Even acting on their own, Kurds and Shi'ites would need to reach agreement on several difficult issues, chiefly concerning how to divide Iraq's oil wealth.

Kurds seek to specify in the constitution how oil revenue will be divided between the national and local governments. Shi'ites prefer to leave such details out of the documents, according to Saad Jawad, a Shi'ite leader.

Last week's vote of approval also was delayed by debate over women's rights and the degree to which sharia, or Islamic law, would be imposed in Iraq.

If negotiators do not reach an agreement today, , legislators can again approve a delay. The National Assembly will be disbanded, however, if it does not approve a constitution to put before the voters. New parliamentary elections would be conducted by the end of the year, and the process of writing a charter would start anew. Such a delay is strongly opposed by the Bush administration.

In recent days, Sunni Arab groups have organized protest rallies in Fallujah, Ramadi, and Baghdad.

In Mosul, the Muslim Scholars Association is preparing a religious edict, or fatwa, that would order Sunni followers to vote ''no" in the referendum if Sunni clerics determine that the final draft ''violates Islamic fundamentals," according to Othman Ali Khalid, a lawyer representing the chapter.

Last week, representatives for Sunni groups met with a National Assembly coalition affiliated with radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to discuss ways that the two factions could jointly work to defeat the constitution.

''Our views on this issue are aligned," said Auf Rahoomi Majid, an official with the Iraqi Islamic Party in Baqubah.

Both say they fear the draft constitution will lead to the breakup of Iraq.

''We are preparing to lobby our people against the constitution," said Fatah Sheik, a member of the National Assembly and former editor of a Sadr-leaning newspaper.

''We would rather dissolve the National Assembly than pass a constitution that would dissolve Iraq," Sheik said.

For weeks, Sunni political parties and clerics have been urging their followers to register to vote in the referendum. This call stands in stark contrast to the Jan. 30 parliamentary election, during which most Sunnis stayed home.

''We will go to each and every city to explain our view," said Sheik Hassan Zaydan, one of the Sunni Arab negotiators.

A Shi'ite-Kurd power play would represent a major setback for the Bush administration, which has lobbied for the inclusion of Sunni voices and the drafting of a constitution acceptable to them.

Along with the development of capable Iraqi security forces, coaxing Sunni Arabs into the political process is the primary US strategy for blunting the insurgency.

A strong Sunni Arab push to defeat the constitution is certain to further strain Iraq's frayed ethnic fabric, in which both Kurds and Shi'ites had been dominated by a Sunni minority under Hussein.

Hussein Shukir Faluji, a Sunni Arab consultant on the committee charged with helping to draft the constitution, warned that if Shi'ite and Kurd legislators attempt to override Sunni concerns, ''We will start a revolution."