BAGHDAD, 13 August 2005 — Iraq’s ousted Sunni Arab elite expressed alarm yesterday after the country’s Shiite majority made a surprise move toward Kurdish-style autonomy, just days before a crucial deadline for agreement on a new constitution.
Thursday’s call from leading Shiite politician Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim for autonomy in Shiite areas of south and central Iraq angered Sunni Arab leaders who said it could derail the entire political process.
“We are shocked and scared by the demand for autonomy as expressed by my Shiite brothers,” said Salah Al-Motlag, a key Sunni member of the constitutional drafting committee. “The timing of the demand is wrong with just three days left to go for the deadline. Such demands can delay the constitution and Iraq could be without a constitution for another year.”
Some Shiite politicians have previously made calls for autonomy in the south and center of the country, but it was the first time that Hakim, a former exile in Iran who headed the victorious Shiite alliance in January elections, had lent such explicit support. His comments came after meetings in Najaf on Wednesday with Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and radical leader Moqtada Al-Sadr, who led his outlawed militia in a six-month uprising against the US-led coalition last year.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said last week Sistani was not opposed to federalism. Sunni politicians denounced Hakim’s comments as aiming to derail a constitutional agreement, while Sunni religious leaders strongly condemned the proposal of a Shiite autonomous zone.
“That Iraq is divided into cantons is what the Jews and our enemies want,” said Sheikh Mehdi Al-Sulaimi, a member of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, during Friday prayers at the group’s main mosque in Baghdad. Sunnis are fearful the creation of federally-autonomous zones will prevent them taking an equal share of the Iraq’s lucrative oil reserves, predominantly located in the country’s Kurdish north and Shiite south.
“We call for reason from those clamoring to break up (Iraq) ... we, in the center of the country, do not want an autonomous zone,” Sulaimi said.
