Word: iraqi
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...Federalism is a deeply divisive issue among Iraqis. The Constitution adopted under U.S. occupation stipulates that any of the 18 provinces, except Baghdad, can combine to form regions similar to the northern Kurdish-run zone, which has been semi-autonomous since 1991. While the Kurds insist upon the principle, the Sunnis have traditionally been strongly opposed. Among the Shi'ites, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) has favored the idea a super region in the south, but the movement of the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has insisted on a strong central state. But the proposal to turn Basra into...
...autonomy proposal is being spearheaded by independent Shi'ite lawmaker and former governor of the province, Wael Abdel-Latif al-Fadel, and its timing - Iraqis are to vote in January in what promise to be hotly contested provincial elections - is sure to escalate political tensions. Al-Fadel, a 58-year-old former judge, has filed a petition with the Iraqi Electoral Commission containing 34,800 signatures, or 2% of the province's population (as required by law). After the Commission publicizes the official request through the media this week, its backers must garner an additional 139,200 signatures to meet...
After months of thorny back-and-forth negotiations, several revisions and much hand-wringing, the Iraqi Cabinet on Sunday finally approved the contentious Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which provides a legal basis for U.S. military operations to continue in Iraq after Dec. 31, when the U.N. mandate expires. But it's too early to pop the champagne. The bilateral U.S.-Iraqi security pact is by no means a done deal: it must still be ratified by a fractured parliament. The Cabinet vote had only one nay to 27 ayes, but nine Cabinet members chose to withdraw from the final...
...referendum, a key demand of the Tawafuk Front. The front is the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc with 44 of the legislature's 275 seats. "If Tawafuk says no, that means the Sunnis say no," said party spokesman Omar Almashhadani. "We prefer that the U.N. mandate be extended or the Iraqi government agree to a referendum...
...nuclear-weapons program. The Israelis kept mum about their reasons for attacking the site, but the U.S. let it be known that the target was a secret nuclear reactor being built with North Korean assistance - a claim that was widely viewed through the prism of false U.S. claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the Bush Administration's animus toward Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime over its support for Hizballah and Palestinian radical groups, as well as its failure to curb jihadist insurgents crossing into Iraq...