Iraqi Leaders Race For Compromise
American and U.N. diplomats stepped up pressure Saturday on Sunni Arabs to accept a new constitution with only two days before the deadline for its approval. A top Sunni official said his group would never accept terms that would lead to the division of the country.
Meanwhile, U.S. troops raided a suspected insurgent chemical weapons factory in northern Iraq, finding about 1,500 gallons of dangerous substances, the U.S. military said.
Iraqi leaders rushing to finish a constitution reported tentative agreements on distribution of oil wealth and other issues, but there was no deal on the main obstacle: federalism.
President Jalal Talabani predicted a draft constitution will be ready by Monday's deadline. CBS News Correspondent Tom Popyk reports from Baghdad that Shiite and Kurdish delegates are now threatening to approve the draft, with our without minority Sunni approval.
But some committee members said serious divisions remained among the Shiite Muslim, Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders, particularly on the question of whether Iraq should be transformed into a federated state. Talabani acknowledged negotiations continued.
"The meetings are still going on and we have gone forward," he told reporters. "There is a meeting today and another meeting tomorrow and, God willing, we will finish the job tomorrow."
President Bush says the document "is a critical step on the path to Iraqi self-reliance."
Mr. Bush used his weekly radio address broadcast Saturday to highlight political progress in Iraq, even as daily violence continues to take the lives of citizens and the U.S. forces occupying the country.
"Iraqis are taking control of their country, building a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself," the president said. "And we're helping Iraqis succeed. We're hunting down the terrorists and training the security forces of a free Iraq so Iraqis can defend their own country."
In other developments:
Three soldiers assigned to Three Task Force Liberty were killed in a roadside bombing late Friday near Tuz, 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Baghdad, the military said in a brief statement. One other soldier was wounded in the blast and evacuated from the site.
One soldier was killed and another wounded in another bombing in west Baghdad on Saturday, the military said.
In another roadside bombing, one soldier on a patrol was killed Sunday and three others wounded east of Rutbah, 250 miles west of Baghdad, the military said.
One soldier was found dead of a gunshot wound Friday, the military said in a brief statement from Baghdad. The military said an investigation was underway and did not say where the soldier was found or if an attack was suspected in the soldier's death.
Talabani said negotiators were concentrating on the question of a federated state comprising Shiite Muslim areas of central and southern Iraq, as well as the role of Islam in laws.
Earlier, committee members said the remaining stumbling blocks were federalism, the role of Shiite clergy, dual nationality and a description of Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Even the formal name of the country kept going through last minute modifications.
U.S. officials hope adoption of a constitution and expansion of democracy will deflate support for the insurgency gripping Iraq.
Sunni, Kurdish and Shiite political leaders have been negotiating for days in an attempt to deliver a draft constitution to the parliament before the deadline.
Although Sunnis agreed to continuing self-rule for the Kurdish region in the north, they have opposed full federalism for Iraq, fearing that could lead to the breakup of the country, which was established after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.
Talabani, speaking to reporters after meeting with Sunni religious leader Adnan al-Dulaimi, said none of the points of disagreement would be postponed. "There is an agreement to draft a constitution unanimously among all groups," he said.
He said there were few points still being debated. "We have reached agreements on many points but I am not authorized to announce them because we want to make the declaration all together," the president said.
Before Talabani spoke, a Sunni Arab member of the constitution committee, Saleh al-Mutlaq, said negotiators reached a preliminary agreement three days ago that distribution of oil revenues would be shared by the central and regional governments.
Al-Mutlaq did not elaborate. But a Shiite member, Nadim al-Jaberi, said leaders agreed regional governments in oil-producing areas would keep 5 percent of the revenue and the rest would go to the central government for distribution to other areas based on their population.
Negotiations were thrown into a tailspin Thursday when the leader of the biggest Shiite party, Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, called for a Shiite autonomous government in central and southern Iraq, including the southern oil fields. That enraged Sunni Arab delegates.
Following al-Hakim's call, Sunni clerics on Friday urged their followers to register and vote in the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum — but to vote against the charter if it contains federalism.
"We, in this country, don't want federalism because we are a unified nation in this country and we feel that Iraq with all it's elements is for all," Sheik Mahmoud al-Sumaidaie, of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, told worshippers at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque.
Sunnis appear to be sending a warning that they can bring down the constitution in the referendum. According to the country's interim charter, the constitution will be void if it is rejected by two-thirds of voters in three provinces. Sunnis are a majority in four.
With the Shiites and Kurds both supporting federalism, the two groups reached a number of other deals, which needed to be sold to the Sunnis if unanimity is to be achieved.
Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish legislator, said late Friday that Shiites and Kurds agreed Islam be the state religion.
He also said they agreed on the country's name as the Iraqi Federal Republic. But a Shiite negotiator, Saad Jawad Kandil, said it would be The Iraqi Republic — a compromise between Kurds who opposed "Islamic" in the name and Shiites who opposed "Federal."