Sunnis to Rejoin Iraqi Constitutional Committee

Iraqi transitional President Jalal Talabani said Saturday that his government had agreed to security requests by Sunni Arab delegates who serve on the nation’s constitution drafting committee, an olive branch that could end a Sunni boycott of the charter writing process.

The Sunni delegates, who launched the boycott after the killing last week of one of their leading colleagues and a legal advisor, also indicated they were ready to resume work on the document, which is scheduled to be voted on by Aug. 15.

The announcements came on a day that the new U.S. ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, arrived in Baghdad. Talabani spoke at a news conference greeting the envoy, who also met with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari. Talabani said that Shiites and Kurds, who hold the majority of seats in the National Assembly, would not impose their will on the Sunni Arabs, who are a minority both in the Assembly and in terms of 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 Talabani, an ethnic Kurd.

“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.”

The Sunni delegates had requested security from the government, as well as an international investigation of the shooting death 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 provisions.

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

The Sunni delegates, unlike other members of the drafting committee, are not members of the National Assembly because a Sunni boycott of the election resulted in few lawmakers from that sect. The few Sunni Arab members do not represent the larger community.

The key issue now is that although some National Assembly members have found housing in the Green Zone area of Baghdad, which is secured by U.S.-led forces, the Sunni delegates live outside it and are far more vulnerable to attack.

Khalilzad used his brief appearance Saturday to emphasize the importance of Sunni participation in the constitution drafting process, saying that all Iraqis must become “shareholders” in the document. He also offered U.S. assistance in providing security to the Sunnis if that was deemed necessary.

“It is vital that all Iraqis participate in the constitutional process,” Khalilzad said. “Iraq can only succeed if all Iraqis can see themselves in the picture.”

Khalilzad, 54, was born in Afghanistan and is a naturalized American. He is a political scientist by training and has worked for the Republicans on international affairs. He served on the Bush-Cheney transition team at the Defense Department and later as a counselor for Secretary of Defense Donald H Rumsfeld and as a special assistant to President Bush on the National Security Council.

Jafari and Talabani said the Iraqi government would soon announce a security plan to protect diplomats, an apparent response to the recent kidnapping and reported killing of Egypt’s ambassador to Iraq several weeks ago and the kidnapping last week of Algeria’s top diplomat, Ali Billaroussi, the charge d’affaires at its mission here.

Talabani said he hoped the U.S. led forces would help the Iraqis provide protection to diplomats because some nations did not want to rely on Iraqi forces. “We hope they will participate with us because some ambassadors refuse to have Iraqi guards and police escorting them,” Talabani said.

Billaroussi was traveling in an unarmored car and with little security when he was grabbed at gunpoint in the upscale Mansour district of Baghdad.

Al Qaeda in Iraq, led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the claim was not verifiable. The group also claimed responsibility for kidnapping and killing the Egyptian ambassador in early July and for attacks on Pakistani and Bahraini diplomats, both of which were foiled.