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Iraqi leaders reach tentative deal on oil, removing
one obstacle to a constitution
13.8.2005
By DEXTER FILKINS
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BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Aug. 12 - Iraq's leaders said Friday that they had
reached a tentative deal to divide the country's
vast oil wealth between the central government and
the provinces, a potentially significant break in
the negotiations over a new constitution.
Under the agreement, oil revenue would be shared by
the central government and Iraq's 18 provinces, and
split roughly according to their populations. It was
unclear which entity would control the money, though
one Iraqi leader said it would be the central
government.
"The agreement is that the distribution would be
under the control of the federal government," said
the leader, Saleh Mutlak, a member of the committee
charged with writing the constitution.
If it holds, the deal will constitute a major
advance in the effort to complete a constitution.
The control of oil revenue, which provides the bulk
of Iraq's income, could significantly strengthen the
hand of the central government over the regions,
like Kurdistan and southern Iraq, that are pushing
for greater self-rule.
Most of Iraq's oil is concentrated in fields well to
the south and north, raising fears, especially among
the Sunni Arab population, that the revenues will
fall under the control of the Shiite Arabs and the
Kurds. Until this week, Kurdish leaders were
demanding that they keep at least 60 percent of the
money earned from oil in their area, in the north. A
Kurdish official said Friday that they had dropped
that demand.
"This is a formula that everyone can agree on," said
Mahmood Othman, a Kurdish member of the
constitutional committee.
Iraq's leaders remained bitterly divided over the
question of autonomy for the Shiites in southern
Iraq, with Sunni leaders saying the demands of
Shiite leaders could lead to the disintegration of
the country.
The acrimony followed a public call for a Shiite
autonomous region by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, one of the
country's most powerful Shiite political leaders.
Shiite leaders have already imposed Islamic rule in
many areas of southern Iraq, including restrictions
on the rights of women and on personal matters like
dress and alcohol consumption.
The staunchest opposition to the drive for Shiite
autonomy came from Sunni leaders. The Sunnis,
believed to make up about 20 percent of Iraq's
population, dominated the country during the rule of
Saddam Hussein and long before that. With Kurdish
autonomy largely secured in the north, the Sunnis
are wary of being left with a weak and disconnected
rump state in the center of the country.
Sunni leaders said Friday that they had rejected a
proposal circulated by the American ambassador to
Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, intended to bridge the
divide between them and the Shiites. Under the
American proposal, the constitution would declare
Iraq to be a federal state, but leave the details
for the representatives elected in December.
But Sunni leaders rejected that, saying that a
Shiite-dominated legislature would be free to run
roughshod over the Sunni minority.
The disagreement over Shiite autonomy raises the
prospect of a breakdown in the talks over the
constitution. The drafting committee missed its
Friday deadline for handing a completed document
over to the Iraqi National Assembly. Under the rules
agreed upon last year, the National Assembly is
supposed to approve a final constitution by Monday.
It then would go before voters in a nationwide
referendum on Oct. 15.
In addition to Shiite self-rule, a number of other
issues continue to bedevil the constitution
drafters. Principal among them is control over the
ethnically divided northern city of Kirkuk. Mr.
Othman, the Kurdish leader, said there was broad
agreement between Shiite and Kurdish leaders to
include language in the constitution that would call
for the reversal of the migration of tens of
thousands of Arabs to Kirkuk, mostly in the 1980's.
The Arabs who came to Kirkuk typically took the
homes of fleeing Kurds, who were expelled from the
city en masse during Mr. Hussein's time as Iraq's
leader. Under the agreement discussed by Mr. Othman,
the Iraqi government would have to reverse the "Arabization"
of Kirkuk by Dec. 15, the date for nationwide
elections.
Completing such a mass repatriation before the
elections would almost certainly restore the city to
Kurdish control. But moving an estimated 5,000 to
10,000 Arab families out of the city and resettling
them would probably prove extremely difficult.
Mr. Othman said he hoped that the cooperation
between Kurdish and Shiite leaders would put
pressure on Sunni leaders to make a deal. On Friday,
such a prospect did not seem so likely, particularly
on the question of Shiite autonomy. In Sunni
mosques, even the clerics were urging the faithful
to oppose the Shiite demands.
"There is a conspiracy and a scheme to split our
country," a Sunni cleric, Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidie,
told his followers at the Umm al-Qura mosque in
Baghdad. "That is what our enemies want from us."
www.nytimes.com
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