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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq's president averted a
crisis Thursday by promising Sunni Arabs a big say
in drafting the constitution - clearing the way for
them to join a Shiite-dominated panel now working
around the clock in a cavernous, dusty auditorium.
Sunni Arab support is vital to the lawmakers who
gather inside the most heavily fortified area of the
capital, trying to ignore assassination attempts,
death threats and suicide attacks as they wrangle
over sensitive charter details and sometimes give
way to shouted arguments.
Iraq's 275-seat parliament has until mid-August to
adopt a new constitution that hasn't yet been
written, must be acceptable to Iraq's voters, and is
expected to deal with the tough issues of the role
of Islam in public life and the type of electoral
system Iraq should have.
The document will face a nationwide vote two months
later. If adopted, it will provide the basis for a
new election to be held by December.
"It's all down to time," said Mariam Taleb al-Rayes,
a Shiite legislator and one of nine women on the
55-deputy committee that meets in a second-story
room behind dusty windows taped with a plastic
coating to prevent the glass from shattering in case
of explosions.
"We are working day and night," she told The
Associated Press, sipping an orange soda and
munching on a cookie while taking a break inside the
Green Zone, a large swath of Baghdad where
parliament, the U.S. Embassy and Iraq's government
offices are located.
President Jalal Talabani, a Sunni Kurd, responded
Thursday to threats by Sunni Arabs to boycott the
process unless they were given more committee seats,
and unless their members were allowed to vote.
"We have decided to add about 20 to 25 members from
Sunnis in the committee, which will draft the
constitution with full rights like other members who
were elected by the parliament," Talabani said after
meeting British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. "This
will be done very soon and we are discussing to
finalize the making of this decision."
The latest move to lure the reluctant Sunni Arab
minority into the political process came amid
reports that the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy
were both engaged in backchannel negotiations
designed to get the Sunni-dominated insurgents
involved in the political process.
At the same time, the government has undercut ties
with the Sunni community by supporting the Badr
Brigade militia of the Shiites and the pesh merga of
the Kurds. Only Wednesday, Talabani, speaking at a
public ceremony, praised the militia as being the
"heroes of liberating Iraq."
Straw said he was confident Iraq would meet its
deadlines and prove its detractors wrong.
"Many, many people said there was no chance of
meeting a Jan. 30 deadline for elections, no
possibility that the elections could take place in a
free way. They were wrong on both counts," Straw
said after meeting Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
"I have every confidence that you will be able to
meet those deadlines, the constitution will be
delivered on time, there will be a referendum, and
the elections will take place in December," he said.
Straw and three other senior European Union
officials were on a historic visit to Baghdad, the
EU's first since the U.S.-led invasion toppled
Saddam Hussein's regime two years ago.
The trip came ahead of a June 22 international
conference on Iraq to be held in Brussels. More than
80 countries and international organizations are
invited to the one-day session. Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice also is expected to attend.
The EU visit came on a relatively peaceful day
around Iraq.
AP
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