Sunni Arab leaders yesterday rejected Shiite calls for a federal Iraq enshrined in the constitution, saying the proposal would fracture the country along religious and ethnic lines. The dispute threatens to delay completion of the charter that is due on Monday.
Sunni leaders were responding to a demand by a leading Shiite lawmaker for federal provisions in the constitution to allow local Shiite control in the southern and central parts of the country. Sunni Arabs fear they will lose out on oil revenues if the country is split into federated zones.
"We reject it wherever it is, whether in the north or in the south, but we accept the Kurdish region as it was before the war," said Kamal Hamdoun, a Sunni member of the committee drafting the constitution.
Some Shiite leaders want to replicate the success of Kurdish leaders in the north who govern an autonomous part of the country.
"The aim of federalism is to divide Iraq into ethnic and sectarian areas. We will cling to our stance of rejecting this," Hamdoun said.
During a speech on Thursday to crowds in Najaf, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the country's biggest Shiite party, called for a Shiite federal state, saying it would "keep a political balance in the country" after decades of dictatorship under former president Saddam Hussein.
Al-Hakim's call may have been a last-minute bargaining tactic, but Sunni Arabs immediately rebuked the proposal.
"We were surprised with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's declarations today," said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni member of the commission drafting the commission. "Time is running out and such declarations should be much more calm. We don't have time for such maneuvers."
Al-Mutlaq and other Sunnis had suggested that a decision on federalism should be delayed until a new parliament is elected in December. That parliament is expected to have more Sunni Arab members than the current one because many Sunnis boycotted the January election.
Also on Thursday, al-Qaeda in Iraq posted an Internet statement that threatened anyone involved in drafting the "illegal constitution" and that vowed to attack voting centers during the October referendum.
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