Kurds’ demand for Autonomy Roils IGC
The Washington Post reports that the issues of the nature of federalism and the rights of minorities and provinces with regard to Iraq’s Kurds are creating a deadlock in the Interim Governing Council as it polishes the Fundamental Law that will serve as a constitution until a new one can be drafted. The Sunni Arabs on the IGC think the Kurds are asking for too much. They want the right to veto domestic legislation affecting them, giving the central government control only over foreign policy. They refuse to allow Iraqi army troops to enter their territory. They want control of the petroleum in their region, as, they say, Canadian provinces retain control such resources found in their province.
Ash-Sharq al-Awsat reports that the IGC is also stymied by the demand of the more activist religious parties that the Fundamental Law specify that Islamic canon law, the shariah, be the source of legislation rather than, as at present, only a source of legislation.