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WASHINGTON - As the August 15 deadline
approaches for a new Iraqi constitution, the
ownership and management of Iraq's vast oil
resources is yet to be agreed.
"A draft will be presented to the National Assembly
in the first week of August," Sheikh Humam Al
Hammoudi, chairman of the constitutional drafting
committee, told a news conference in Baghdad last
week. "After it is discussed and final changes are
made, 5 million copies will be distributed to
households on August 15."
Hammoudi said that there is agreement on fundamental
issues such as basic principles, rights, duties and
freedoms, but not on oil.
The Iraqi regional governments and governorates
subcommittee, one of six such groups set up to draft
the constitution following January's National
Assembly elections, debated ownership and management
of Iraqi oil resources but failed to reach a
consensus.
Members of the team have drawn up three different
versions, which will be submitted later this week to
the full 71-member drafting committee.
One of the three versions say that Iraqi natural
resources should be managed by the federal
government, which would be responsible for the
distribution of oil revenues among the regions and
governorates, according to specific percentages to
be defined by law.
The second option stipulates that oil and gas
resources would be managed by the federal government
in coordination with the regional governments and
governorates, with the central government again
distributing revenues according to legal
definitions.
The last option remains the most controversial.
Kurdish members of the subcommittee insisted that
the draft constitution should state that Iraq's
natural resources are owned by the people of the
regions, regional governments should be responsible
for their management and that revenues should be
distributed according to a set of percentages
enshrined in the constitution. The proposed
percentages are 5 percent for the producing
governorates, 65 percent for regional governments
and 30 percent for the federal government.
There is currently one defined regional government,
in Kurdistan in northern Iraq, though its final
borders have yet to be agreed upon. In southern Iraq
several governorates are teaming up including the
southern oil capital of Basra and the governorates
of Missan and Nasiriyah to create a new regional
government.
"The constitutional committee will either adopt one
of the three versions or it will come up with a new
one acceptable to all," the member of the drafting
committee said.
UPI
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