World

Disputes Among Iraqis Delay Oil Bill

July 5, 2007 / 8:16 AM EDT / AP

Attempts by Iraqi lawmakers to pass a key oil law sought by the U.S. were snarled Wednesday by deep differences among Iraq's Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, delaying parliament debate despite the prime minister's hopes a day earlier of a breakthrough on support for the bill.

The legislation would regulate Iraq's oil industry, spelling out the role of the central government, while companion legislation which is nearly finalized would determine how oil revenue will be distributed among Iraq's regions.

Despite heavy U.S. pressure, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has struggled for months to get members of his coalition together behind the bill, part of a long-delayed political package that the Bush administration hopes will reconcile Iraq's Sunni Arab minority with the government, reduce support for the insurgency and ease the country's violence.

Al-Maliki's allies hold a majority in parliament, but pushing the bill through without the support of all parties would undercut the wider aim of reconciliation.

The legislation hits on the most contentious question over Iraq's future: how to balance power between the central government and the country's regions, divided on sectarian and ethnic lines. The demands of each side — Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish — are far apart, and often mutually exclusive.

Sunnis, centered in parts of the country with few proven reserves, fear Shiites and Kurds in the oil-rich south and north will monopolize profits from the industry — and want a stronger federal role to ensure a Sunni say in how the fields are run.

The Kurds, in particular, want control of potentially lucrative future discoveries of reserves in their northern enclave.

Parliament failed to start debate on the bill Wednesday, despite al-Maliki's announcement the day before that it would. The acting speaker, Khaled al-Attiya, said he expected it to be sent Thursday to the legislature, where it would be put to a committee.

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U.S. forces killed 10 insurgents in a raid Wednesday on a suspected al Qaeda hideout in western Anbar province, the military said in a statement. In a separate battle earlier this week, U.S. troops killed 25 insurgents outside the city of Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

Three suicide car bombers hit police checkpoints in Baghdad and the western cities of Ramadi and Habbaniyah, killing nine policemen and two civilians. A car bomb hit a popular restaurant outside the northern town of Beiji on the highway to Baghdad, killing three civilians and wounding 12 people.

In northern Iraq, police found the bodies of two members of the minority Yazidi religious sect who had been reported kidnapped three days earlier in the city of Mosul, police said. The bullet-riddled body of an abducted police colonel, a Sunni Kurd, was found in Baghdad.

Security forces in northern Iraq's Kurdistan, the heartland of the Kurdish minority long tormented by Saddam Hussein, routinely torture detainees with beatings and electric shocks and hold hundreds of prisoners for long periods without charge, a human rights group says. The Human Rights Watch report - based on interviews conducted from April to October 2006 with more than 150 detainees - demanded a comprehensive overhaul of detention practices in the Kurdish region. "We are surprised that the Kurds are practicing such violations after they were victims of torture during the Saddam era," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director for Human Rights Watch.

The military said Tuesday that U.S. forces waged a large battle with gunmen near the western Sunni city of Ramadi over the weekend, in fighting that left 23 insurgents dead. The insurgents had massed on Donkey Island, a patch of land in a canal outside the city, and opened fire on U.S. troops, prompting the gun battle Saturday. Troops found caches of weapons, explosives and suicide vests, the military said.

Hopes rose in Washington Tuesday at word from Baghdad that Al-Maliki's Cabinet had unanimously approved a draft of the oil industry regulation bill, raising hopes that major progress had been made.

President Bush phoned the prime minister to thank him for the step.

But almost immediately Sunni and Kurdish members of his coalition said they were not yet on board to back the bill.

The Association of Muslim Scholars, an influential Sunni group, has issued a fatwa, or religious edict, blasting the oil bill as "religiously forbidden" and warning that those who back it "anger God for usurping public money."

Al-Maliki referred to the challenges facing his government during remarks at Fourth of July festivities at the U.S. Embassy but pledged to "continue to work hand in hand in cooperation to achieve our goals in Iraq."

"We are ready to take steps that will lead us to a brighter future where democracy will reign," he said.

Further complicating the negotiations are other political disputes. Al-Maliki's main Sunni coalition partner, the Iraqi Accordance Front, was not present when the Cabinet approved the draft because it is boycotting meetings in a row over an arrest warrant issued against the Sunni culture minister.

An Accordance Front leader warned Wednesday that no draft should be considered until the Sunnis sign on.

Al-Maliki may have pushed the bill through the Cabinet in an attempt to force the Accordance Front to end its boycott.

But the Kurds also objected, fearing concessions had been made to the Sunnis. The Kurdistan Regional Government warned it would oppose the bill if it made "material and substantive changes" to an outline agreed upon during weeks of negotiations.

Meanwhile, the Shiite party loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, which opposes too much decentralization, outright rejected the draft, saying it "left nothing of Iraq's unity."

Al-Maliki can still put together enough votes to get the legislation through parliament, where the Accordance Front, the Sadrists and the Kurdish parties hold 127 of the 275 seats. But passage over vocal opposition from one of the major blocs — such as the Sunnis — would mean a failure of the legislation's broader goal of reconciliation.

The oil bill is the first of the political benchmarks that President Bush has pressed al-Maliki to meet, along with opening jobs to Sunnis who supported Saddam, amending the constitution to satisfy Sunni aspirations, and holding local elections. The Iraqis pledged to meet the benchmarks by the end of last year but failed due to political haggling and the security crisis.

Besides bringing together Iraqis, U.S. officials are also hoping progress on the benchmarks will show the American public — where support for the war is dropping — that Bush's strategy is working.

President Bush ordered 28,000 more U.S. troops to Iraq this year to launch security crackdowns in Baghdad and north and south of the capital aimed at tamping down insurgents enough to allow political agreement.

The offensives have boosted American casualties, although the number of bombings and shootings has fallen in the city in recent days.