Will a one-week extension break the impasse of drafting Iraq's permanent constitution, asks Salah Hemeid After several weeks of wrangling over key issues of power sharing, Iraqi politicians missed a deadline Monday for completing the country's first constitution in the post-Saddam Hussein era. The failure to reach an agreement disappointed Iraqis who had hoped that the fundamental document would represent another major step towards full Iraqi sovereignty. It was also a setback for the Bush administration's efforts to maintain the political momentum and defeat Iraq's two and a half year old bloody insurgency. Shortly before midnight, the National Assembly, the provisional parliament, voted to give its leaders another week -- until 22 August -- to try to resolve their disagreements over the future and identity of the violence-torn country. Last ditch efforts for achieving consensus, held inside the US-protected Green Zone in Baghdad, began in the morning and ended minutes before midnight when negotiators told the parliament that they had failed to make a deal. The assembly quickly voted to amend the occupation-coded interim constitution, which had decreed 15 August as the deadline, to give the drafters an extra week. Leaders of the main political, sectarian and ethnic groups tried to allay fears that the Iraqi political process will descend towards paralysis. "We should not be hasty regarding the issues and the constitution should not be born crippled," provisional President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said after the vote. Prime Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, a Shia, speaking after the parliament session, which lasted a bare 15 minutes, echoed the same sentiment: "We are keen to have an early constitution, but the constitution should be completed in all of its items." Several crucial issues remained unresolved on the eve of Monday's deadline: the role of Islamic Sharia -- or jurisdiction -- in Iraqi law, the desire of Shia leaders to establish their own federal region in central and southern Iraq, the rights of women and the division of oil wealth. Some other issues, seemingly settled, reared again to underline the impasse. Shia leaders' insistence to give a larger role to Shia clerics independent of the government raised concerns that the Shia leaders were planting the seeds for an Iranian-style Islamic theocracy. Meanwhile, Kurdish leaders' insistence on the right of their predominantly Kurdish provinces for self- determination was interpreted as a formula for secession. The United States has pushed the Iraqi leaders hard to reach agreement on the draft constitution hoping the progress on the political front will eventually allow it to begin reducing the number of American troops in Iraq. Throughout the weeks before Monday's postponement, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad huddled with Iraqi leaders, proposing compromises and sometimes wielding intense pressure in an effort to get the charter drafted on time. But knowing that too much pressure could backfire and undermine the Iraq leadership's credibility, Washington has tried to stay upbeat. President George W Bush immediately praised the "heroic efforts" of Iraqi law-makers despite their failure to meet the deadline. "Their efforts are a tribute to democracy and an example that difficult problems can be solved peacefully through debate, negotiation and compromise," he announced. Also trying to play down the failure, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iraq's political leaders had made considerable progress. She insisted the delay is proof of democracy at work, and a sign of Iraqi politicians' commitment to building a new Iraq. Khalilzad himself issued a statement praising the hard work of the negotiators and hailing the parliament for unanimously deciding to give the drafting committee more time. "I have no doubt that Iraq will have a good draft constitution completed in the coming days," he said. Obviously, such remarks were meant to put a brave face on the failure to produce the constitution. But they could not hide the nervousness within the administration over the situation in Iraq. Some in the administration believe that American and other coalition governments must keep pressure on all the parties in order to achieve success. By contrast, many Congress leaders and senior commentators have criticised the administration's hands-on approach, and the deadline it set for drafters to complete their work. The Americans can claim that this is an Iraqi process. Yet, the Bush administration seemed to have moved into another deadlock. Leaning on the Iraqis to produce a consensus where none may yet exist raises the possibility of exacerbating tensions among the country's major groups. Nearly all of the major disputes over the constitution fall along ethnic and religious lines. Iraqi leaders will claim that there were limits to how far their respective communities would allow them to go in order to make a deal. For Shia, whether they should be allowed to have a separate federal entity in the south equivalent to the one the Kurds have established in the north remains the prime question. And for Kurds any devolution of power, beyond the existing autonomy they have enjoyed since 1991, remains contentious. Sunni Arabs rigidly oppose the division, expressing fears that it will split Iraq and leave their minority stranded in the resource- poor centre and west. Meanwhile, Shia and Kurds are aware that though they have the majority between them to see the document passed, the new constitution could alienate the Sunni minority further and could create a backlash when the referendum is held. Saleh Mutlaq, a Sunni Muslim member of the panel drafting the constitution, said Sunnis would reject the draft if it contained proposals for a federal Iraq. The constitution needs to be approved by the National Assembly before it can go to a nationwide referendum on 15 October. If no agreement is reached on the constitution and if two-thirds of the general population in three provinces rejects the document in the referendum, the National Assembly would have to be dissolved and fresh elections held. That would risk greatly aggravating political instability and violence that have claimed lives of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and American soldiers since the April 2003 invasion. By going to the ballot box on 31 January, and under the most daunting conditions, to choose their representatives freely for the first time in their lives, Iraqis have come too far to turn back now. If the draft constitution is finished by 22 August as now scheduled, and Iraqis agree in the 15 October vote to adopt it, Iraq will hold elections 15 December for its first full-term government since Saddam was toppled. But for now, most Iraqis will remain sceptical of their politicians' performance, and worried about their future.
