Word: shying
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...What happened? As the day wore on, it seemed there were agreements on the role of Islam and Kurdish autonomy, but federalism remained a sticking point. The Sunni Arabs refused to accept the principle of a southern federal region as demanded by the head of SCIRI, a religious Shi'ite party with ties to Iran. So the Shi'ite and Kurdish delegates stopped including the Sunnis in talks. "In the last two days, there have been no general meetings including everybody," said Kurdish committee member Mahmoud Othman. Instead, he said, the negotiations were held between "interested parties," which usually included...
...Kurds and Shi'ites crafted a deal between themselves and spent Monday evening trying to convince the Sunnis to come on board. They failed. "They are trying to push us aside," said Sunni negotiator Saleh Mutlak. Finally, the chairman of the committee, Sheikh Humam al-Hamoudi of SCIRI, presented a draft to the parliament without settling the issue of federalism. Fuming Sunnis warned darkly of civil war while pledging to vote down the document in the October referendum...
...what got decided? The role of religion is settled-Islam will be the official religion of Iraq and it will be "a main source" of legislation rather than "the main source" of legislation, as many religious Shi'ites wanted. However, another article states that no laws passed may contradict Islam, which many fear will be used to establish a religious high court to vet legislation for Islamic consistency. This could be used to reduce the rights of Iraqi women, who enjoyed relatively liberal rights under Saddam's regime. Women's rights are an issue that U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad...
...What was deferred? Federalism has remained a roadblock and the Sunnis' red line issue. They absolutely reject the idea of "federalism"-meaning empowered regional districts similar to the Kurdish region in the north-for the Shi'ites, saying it will lead to the breakup of the country and allow Iran undue influence over the south. This issue has been pushed through over Sunni objections causing the Sunnis to threaten to veto the constitution when it comes up for an Oct. 15 referendum. It's unclear how seriously to take this threat, because the constitution can only be vetoed...
...will work to hammer out what, exactly, Iraqi federalism will mean. Assuming it's approved by the parliament Thursday night, the draft will then go to the people of Iraq to be ratified in a referendum Oct. 15. Sunnis have already said they will campaign against it, but the Shi'ites and Kurds have said they will go to the Sunni communities to convince them to vote...