WASHINGTON, 13 September 2005 — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani expressed confidence yesterday, ahead of a key meeting with US President George W. Bush, that a proposed new constitution will be passed in a referendum next month. With Sunni Arab leaders holding out over a final draft, Talabani said the Sunnis are divided and that there was time to finalize the document before the referendum in mid-October. “The majority of Iraqi people will accept the constitution,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR).
“There is no one leadership, or one group here representing all Sunni Arabs in Iraq. You will see in the future who are the majority among Sunnis, those who are against or those who are for” the constitution.
Talabani, who is a Kurd, insisted the new document will not favor any one group. Kurds, Shiites, Arabs and Turkmans will not get everything they want. “There are different kinds of people, different ideologies,” Talabani said.
“There must be a kind of reconciliation or compromise among all these different nationalities who are living in Iraq.” The president responded to a question about an independent Kurdistan by saying: “A big majority of the Kurds want to be independent because the Kurdish people are like other nations of the world and they have the right to self-determination.
