One-Day Extension For Iraq Charter
The speaker of Iraq's Parliament announced a one-day extension in talks on Iraq's new constitution.
Hajim al-Hassani, speaking minutes after the midnight deadline, said that after meeting for three days, "we found that time was late and we saw that the matters will need another day in order to reach results that pleases everyone."
Earlier, however, a Sunni Arab negotiator said Shiites didn't even show up for a late night meeting, after two Shiite delegates told reporters they saw no reason why the draft presented to the legsilature last Monday could not be forwarded to the people in a referendum Oct. 15.
Last Monday, Shiites and Kurds accepted a draft but Sunni Arabs opposed it, and al-Hassani granted three more days to try to bring the Sunnis on board.
The parliament speaker said that discussions in the past three days were "very good in which points of views were exchanged." He said they discussed federalism, references to Saddam Hussein's Baath party and the constitution's introduction remain at issue.
Al-Hassani said that on Thursday, discussions continued and were attended by the Kurdish coalition, Iraqi List of former Prime Minster Ayad Allawi and Sunni Arabs and after that the suggestions were taken to the Shiite alliance.
Leaders of Iraq's factions have been grappling with issues such as power sharing. Sunnis say federalism aspects of the draft, which prevented a vote of the document during the past two deadlines, would split the country. The spokesman says the assembly hasn't scheduled a new session.
In other recent developments:
Al-Sadr demanded that Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the rival Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI, to condemn "what his followers have done." SCIRI has denied any role in the attack on al-Sadr's office.
"I urge the believers not to attack innocent civilians and not to fall for Americans plots that aim to divide us," al-Sadr said. "We are passing through a critical period and a political process."
The crisis erupted Wednesday when al-Sadr's supporters tried to reopen his office across the street from the Imam Ali mosque in Najaf, the most sacred Shiite shrine in Iraq. Rivals tried to stop the move, fights broke out and the office was set afire.
Armed attacks against offices of al-Sadr's movement and SCIRI then spread across the Shiite heartland of central and southern Iraq. Twenty-one pro-al-Sadr members of parliament and three top government officials announced they are stopping official duties in protest of the Najaf attack.
Legislator Bahaa al-Araji said Thursday the suspension will continue "until the leader's demands are met and until the investigation is over."
Before al-Sadr spoke, the violence continued Thursday.
Al-Sadr supporters in Diwaniyah occupied parts of the city, setting up checkpoints and firing on police and rival groups, said police Capt. Hussein Hakim.
Some residents are fleeing to nearby villages.
SCIRI members torched a building belonging to the al-Sadr's movement in the Baghdad suburb Nahrawan, police Lt. Ayad Othman. In retaliation, al-Sadr's followers set fire to an office of SCIRI's Badr Brigade militia in Baghdad's heavily Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City.
Clashes were also underway in Amarah, where al-Sadr's militiamen attacked the headquarters of the Badr group with mortars. Five attackers were killed, al-Sadr officials claimed.
Armed clashes broke out before dawn in Basra, the country's second largest city and the major metropolis of the south, but the city settled down after daybreak, police and residents said.
Iraqi political figures moved quickly to contain the crisis, which flared as the country was also facing a virulent insurgency led by Sunni Arabs in central, northern and western Iraq.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, telephoned al-Sadr on Thursday to appeal for restraint. Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite who has cultivated ties to al-Sadr, condemned the attack that triggered the uprising and promised that "the government will start an immediate investigation" into the incident.
During his press conference Thursday, al-Sadr criticized the Shiite-led government, in which SCIRI plays a major role.
"What we want is that the voice of people be louder than the voice of the government," he said. "There is elements who fired shots near Imam Ali Shrine, and we know who are stationed near the shrine. Anyone who committed aggression on the al-Sadr office will receive his punishment."
Al-Sadr also criticized portions of the draft constitution, saying it was not strong enough against Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Al-Sadr also spoke out against federalism, which is also opposed by the Sunni Arabs.
"We reject federalism and if America has schemes, it should not try to implement those schemes at once," al-Sadr said.