Sunnis may return to constitutional talks following deals on security

IRAQ: Iraq's transitional president Jalal Talabani says his government has agreed to security requests by Sunni Arab delegates…

IRAQ: Iraq's transitional president Jalal Talabani says his government has agreed to security requests by Sunni Arab delegates who serve on Iraq's constitution-drafting committee. This could end a Sunni boycott of the charter-writing process.

Sunni delegates, who launched a boycott after the killing last week of one of their leading colleagues and a legal adviser, also indicated they were ready to resume work on the document, which is due to be approved by August 15th.

The announcements came on a day that new US ambassador Zalmay Khalizad arrived in Baghdad.

Mr Talabani spoke at a news conference in Baghdad on Saturday to greet Mr Khalizad (54).

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Mr Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, said that Shias and Kurds, who hold the vast majority of seats in the National Assembly, would not impose their will on the Sunnis, who are a minority in the assembly and in Iraq's total population.

"Today we discussed their demands and approved all the logical ones, like to provide security and respect the principle of agreement, not to impose decisions of majority," said Mr Talabani.

"We think they will accept this and will return to participate in the political process because it is the process of all and the constitution is for all. No real Iraqi constitution that protects the unity of Iraq could be written unless all Iraqi factions agree to it."

Sunni delegates had requested security from the government, as well as an international investigation of the shooting to death last Tuesday of law professor Mijbil Issa and the retraction of statements made by the constitutional committee's chairman saying that work on the document was nearly complete. The Sunnis said they had yet to agree to any of the key demands.

Sunni delegate Saleh Mutlak suggested the 14-member group of Sunnis was ready to rejoin. "We have reached an agreement on most of the points," he said.

Sunni delegates, unlike other members of the drafting committee, are not members of the National Assembly because too few Sunnis voted in the elections for Sunnis to win any seats. There are a few Sunnis in the assembly but they do not represent the larger Sunni community.

The key issue now is that while some assembly members have found housing in the green zone area of Baghdad, which is secured by US-led forces, the Sunni delegates live outside it and are far more vulnerable to attack.

Mr Khalizad was born in Afghanistan and is a naturalised American. A political scientist, he has worked as a Republican operative focused on international affairs.