Iraq roped in disenchanted Sunni Arabs for last-minute talks on Monday on thorny issues dogging the drafting of the Constitution just hours before a deadline to complete the charter expires. The talks ”could be the last-ditch effort to strike a deal on the Constitution”, a source close to the negotiations said.
A leading Iraqi Shi’ite politician demanded autonomy for central and southern provinces where the majority community predominates on Thursday, four days before the deadline for a final draft of a new Constitution. The proposed Shi’ite autonomous region would mirror a Kurdish one in the far north.
Iraqi leaders prepared on Thursday for a conference to try to break the deadlock on a draft Constitution amid unabated violence that left at least 20 people dead, a day after 15 United States marines were killed by rebels. US President George Bush insisted his troops will remain in Iraq until their mission is accomplished.
Iraqi insurgents are waging an all-out war on the country’s vital oil industry, which has lost nearly -billion in revenue since last year’s United States-led invasion. Osama bin Laden ordered his supporters to sabotage oil facilities in Iraq and the Gulf, in an audio tape attributed to the al-Qaeda leader broadcast on an Islamist website last month.
Parliament has rubberstamped Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s uncontested candidacy for another seven-year term in a direct challenge to US plots to oust him ”who inspires fear”.