A unified Iraq remained a distant goal yesterday after an interim constitution sparked opposition from the country's Shiite spiritual guide as well as a group of lawmakers who had signed on the dotted line.
As the US-led coalition pushed ahead with plans to hand back sovereignty to a caretaker Iraqi government, Shiite Governing Council member Abdel Aziz Hakim was preparing to hold a news conference to explain why he and a group of colleagues still had concerns about the temporary law.
The ink had barely dried on the document, which was signed on Monday by the council's 25 members or their representatives following a string of delays, before the rebel Shiite group declared that they still had concerns with a veto clause that gave what they felt to be unfair power to the Kurdish north.
"They were concerned about phrase C in article 61," said Shiite council member Rajaa Habib al-Khuzai -- who said she was not involved -- referring to the clause that initially delayed the signing ceremony over the weekend.
Hakim was one of four council members who delegated the signing of the "historic" text to a deputy and skipped the ceremony.
In a blow to the coalition on Friday, five Shiite councilors retracted their endorsement of the interim law at the last minute after receiving advice from their spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But their mini-revolt lasted only the weekend and they agreed to sign the document unchanged.
"We signed it because we have to move on, we have to return sovereignty to Iraq," said a spokesman for Pentagon-backed council member Ahmad Chalabi, in defense of the delay.
The spokesman, Intifadh Qanbar, added that the problems could be resolved in the future by an elected assembly.
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