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Iraq-Jordan
Iraq’s Kurds vow no compromise on constitution
2005-08-07
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s leaders will attempt to break the deadlock on a new draft constitution in a national conference here on Sunday amid signs that Iraq’s Kurds are unwilling to compromise on their demands for autonomy.
Yep, here comes the deal-breaker.
Iraqi Kurds have rejected suggestions the country should be proclaimed an Islamic state in the new constitution and refused to compromise on the incorporation of oil-rich Kirkuk into their autonomous northern region.

Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan, assured Kurdish MPs that he would insist on federalism and retaining the Kurdish peshmerga militia when he meets Iraqi leaders to discuss the constitution Sunday in Baghdad. “We will not accept that Iraq’s identity is Islamic,” Barzani told the autonomous Kurdistan parliament in Arbil on Saturday.

He also rejected suggestions that Iraq be termed an Arab nation. “Let Arab Iraq be part of the Arab nation -- we are not,” the Kurdish leader said.
Good for him. Stand tall.
Barzani arrived in Baghdad late Saturday to participate in the national conference Sunday. “This is a golden chance for Kurds and Kurdistan - if we don’t do what is important for Kurdistan, there will be no second chance. We will not make our final decision in Baghdad, the Kurdish parliament will decide,” he said.

The emergency meeting of the Kurdish parliament had prompted a two-day postponement of the national conference to break the constitutional deadlock. The deadlock revolves around federalism, the official languages of the new Iraq, the relation between religion and state, the rights of women and the future of Kirkuk. “There are many things which need more discussion and dialogue,” said the regional parliament’s speaker, Adnan Mufti, a senior official in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the political party of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Mufti said the Kurds would be ready to endorse the charter “if everyone thinks like us -- that the new constitution should be for all Iraqis.”

Kurds are determined to make good on proposals laid out in the country’s interim law, signed in March 2004, that this policy be reversed and Kurds returned to the city. “We believe the new constitution must uphold (the interim agreements made over Kirkuk) and nothing less -- we want normalisation,” Mufti said.

The national conference is due to report back by August 12, and Iraqi leaders have insisted they are on track to complete a final draft for debate by parliament by August 15 ahead of a referendum in mid-October.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  What? Something about Sharia law the Kurds aren't warming up to?

But, the grand muckity muck, Sustani, wants Islamic law to prevail. Just like it does with their neighors, the Islamic Regime of Iran.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-08-07 00:46  

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