The UN must not endorse Iraq's US-backed interim constitution because it could lead to the break-up of the occupied country, Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric said.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said he will boycott a UN team expected to visit Iraq shortly to advise on forming an interim government unless the UN says it will not back the interim constitution.
"The [Shiite] religious establishment fears the occupation authorities will work to include this law in a new UN resolution to give it international legitimacy," Sistani said in a letter sent last week to Lakhdar Brahimi, a senior adviser to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who had led a mission to Iraq.
A transcript of Sistani's letter was made available to reporters yesterday.
"We warn that any such step will not be acceptable to the majority of Iraqis and will have dangerous consequences," said the 73-year-old cleric, who has been assuming a larger role in politics although he does not favor a theocracy in Iraq.
Annan said last week he would send a team to Iraq as soon as possible to help form an interim government in response to an invitation from the US-installed Iraqi Governing Council.
Sistani had criticised Brahimi and Annan for a report they wrote, which agreed with US authorities that general elections needed months of preparation and were not feasible considering a lack of security.
The Shiites wanted elections before June 30, the date Washington set to hand back sovereignty to an unelected Iraqi government.
The report angered Sistani and millions of his followers eager to take power after political dominance over Iraq by Sunni Arabs.
Under the interim constitution, which was passed earlier this month, elections are due by next year.
Sistani said the interim constitution was unworkable because it establishes a three-person presidential council composed of a Sunni Muslim, a Kurd and a Shiite Muslim who would be required to take unanimous decisions.
"This builds a basis for sectarianism. Consensus would not be reached unless there is pressure from a foreign power, or a deadlock would be reached that destabilises the country and could lead to break-up," Sistani said.
Shiites form a majority in Iraq but are a minority among Muslims worldwide.
The interim constitution, which was passed earlier this month, limits the power of Shi'ites by giving Sunni and Kurdish provinces a de facto veto over national legislation.
Sistani's followers said he allowed his supporters on the Iraqi Governing Council to endorse the constitution to preserve national unity as Iraq remained under US-led occupation and lacked stability.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS