Roadside bombs and ambushes killed at least nine people and wounded 11 others yesterday, as Iraqi leaders reported tentative agreements on issues such as distribution of oil wealth and Islam as the state religion with only two days to go to finalize the new constitution. A Shiite member of the committee writing the constitution, Saad Jawad Kandil, said the draft would be submitted to parliament today -- one day before the deadline for legislative approval.
But a Sunni member, Saleh al-Mutlaq, said he knew nothing about plans to submit the document today. A series of meetings were underway around the capital yesterday to try to make tomorrow's parliamentary approval deadline.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, said late Friday that Shiites and Kurds have agreed that the country be called the Iraqi Federal Republic and that Islam be the religion of the state. But Kandil, the Shiite, said the country would be named "The Iraqi Republic" -- a compromise between Kurds who opposed "Islamic" in the name and the Shiites who opposed "federal."
PHOTO: AP
Othman said Kurds from Kirkuk would receive compensation or be permitted to return to city. He said Shiites and Kurds, who hold majority seats in parliament, had offered concessions to each other, but said disagreements with Sunni Arabs had been more difficult to resolve.
Other major issues remained unresolved, such as the role of Islam in state laws and how the government should distribute the country's wealth. Shiites also want a special status for their clerical hierarchy in Najaf. There are also differences on whether to declare Saddam's Baath party a "fascist" institution.
Yesterday, al-Mutlaq, the Sunni committee member, said the groups reached a preliminary agreement three days ago that distribution of oil revenues would be shared by the central and regional governments.
Al-Mutlaq did not elaborate. But a Shiite member, Nadim al-Jaberi, said leaders agreed that regional governments in oil-producing areas would keep five percent of revenues with the rest sent to the central government for distribution to other areas based on their population.
Negotiations were thrown into a tailspin Thursday when the leader of the biggest Shiite party, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, called for a Shiite autonomous government in central and southern Iraq -- including the southern oil fields. That enraged the Sunni Arab delegates, who had accepted the Kurdish self-ruled area in the north, which has existed since 1991, but who feared that Shiite aspirations confirmed their worst fears of federalism. Al-Mutlaq said it would take "divine intervention" to break the impasse. Following al-Hakim's call, Sunni clerics Friday urged their followers to register and vote in the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum -- but against the charter if it contains federalism.
"We, in this country, don't want federalism because we are a unified nation in this country and we feel that Iraq with all its elements is for all" of us, Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidaie, of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, said at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque.
Sunni clerics led a Sunni boycott of the Jan. 30 parliamentary election. The Sunnis appear to be sending a warning that they can bring down the constitution in the Oct. 15 referendum. According to the country's interim charter, the constitution will be void if it is rejected by two-thirds of voters in three provinces. Sunnis are a majority in the provinces of Anbar, Salahuddin, Ninevah and Diyala.
In other developments, four civilians died when a roadside bomb exploded near Samarra, 95km north of Baghdad. Two Iraqi police were also shot to death in Samarra. In Baghdad, police Major Ahmed Kamil was killed in an ambush in a western neighborhood.
One Iraqi soldier was shot dead in the Dora district of south Baghdad. An unidentified man was found dead in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. His hands were cuffed and he had been shot in the head and legs. Seven people -- three of them civilians -- were hurt in a blast in eastern Baghdad, and four others were injured in separate bombings and shootings in Dora.
US officials hope the violence will recede in time if Iraqis can put together a fully constitutional, democratic government. Key to that is a new constitution which parliament must approve tomorrow.
Airlines in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia and Singapore yesterday canceled flights to and from the Indonesian island of Bali, after a nearby volcano catapulted an ash tower into the sky. Australia’s Jetstar, Qantas and Virgin Australia all grounded flights after Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores island spewed a 9km tower a day earlier. Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia, India’s IndiGo and Singapore’s Scoot also listed flights as canceled. “Volcanic ash poses a significant threat to safe operations of the aircraft in the vicinity of volcanic clouds,” AirAsia said as it announced several cancelations. Multiple eruptions from the 1,703m twin-peaked volcano in
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
Farmer Liu Bingyong used to make a tidy profit selling milk but is now leaking cash — hit by a dairy sector crisis that embodies several of China’s economic woes. Milk is not a traditional mainstay of Chinese diets, but the Chinese government has long pushed people to drink more, citing its health benefits. The country has expanded its dairy production capacity and imported vast numbers of cattle in recent years as Beijing pursues food self-sufficiency. However, chronically low consumption has left the market sloshing with unwanted milk — driving down prices and pushing farmers to the brink — while
RSS