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Baghdad, Sept 30 (AP) - Sunni leaders
complain the constitution does not emphasize Iraq’s
unity and Arab character. They say its federal
system - which would allow Shiites in the south and
Kurds in the north to form mini-states - will
isolate Sunnis in a weak middle region, cheated of
oil resources.
Khalilzad met with the top Kurdish leaders, Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, on
Wednesday and conveyed three changes sought by
Sunnis, said Fuad Massoum, a Kurdish member of the
constitutional commission.
Massoum said the changes concern: confirming the use
of Arabic along with Kurdish in the northern
Kurdistan region; adding a clause stating that "Iraq
is a single nation, and the constitution guarantees
its unity"; and allowing parliament to alter the
constitution by a two-thirds vote rather than
requiring a referendum.
Khalilzad earlier presented the same proposals to
Shiite leaders, said Humam Hamoudi, the Shiite head
of the constitutional committee.
Both Kurds and Shiites rejected the third proposal,
Massoum and Hamoudi said. The Kurds want the second
proposal rephrased to "federal nation" instead of
"single nation," though they accept the first
provision, Massoum said.
Even so, one of the main Sunni Arab parties, the
Iraqi Islamic Party, said that acceptance of all
three changes would not be enough for some Sunni
leaders.
Party official Nasser al-Ani said his side had put
forward 12 proposals, including changes in the
federal system that Shiites and Kurds have insisted
cannot be altered.
"If the American ambassador revealed only three of
our 12 demands, this would not be satisfactory," he
said.
A U.S. official confirmed that Khalilzad was seeking
"tweaks" in about a half-dozen points in the draft
"to maximize the public support." He said agreement
was closest on the use of Arabic in Kurdistan and on
"Iraq’s identity as a nation state" but would not
discuss the other points.
The changes "will absolutely help, because the Sunni
Arabs’ main concerns have been the unity of Iraq,"
he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the discussion.
AP
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