Juan Cole

One-Week Postponement The Iraqi parliament voted to amend the interim constitution to allow the permanent constitution to be presented for a vote on August 22 rather than Aug. 15. That gives negotiators one more week to work out a deal. The one-week extension is clever, since it avoids the dissolution of parliament and it keeps […]

Now They’re moving the Goalpost Every indication is that a final text of Iraq’s permanent constitution just won’t be reported out of the drafting committee in time to have parliament vote on it on Monday. Now Iraqi politicians are talking about having parliament amend the interim constitution to allow a delay of say, two weeks. […]

Constitution likely Not Achieved 30 More Bodies of Police Found in Baghdad The prospect that Iraqi politicians might make some last-minute deal on key issues in the constitution receded Sunday evening. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), declined to come to a planned evening meeting with […]

Guest Editorial: A Transitional Permanent Constitution? Guest Editorial by Andrew Arato,New School University With the ongoing marathon meetings of its political principals concerning the constitution, the round table of the leaders of major groups, Iraq has finally had its first genuine political negotiations of this sorry war and occupation period. How much blood and treasure […]

Constitution Cliffhanger 6 US Troops Killed Politicians and the parliamentary drafting committee in Iraq are meeting Sunday afternoon in an attempt to report out the new constitution to parliament in time for the August 15 (Monday) deadline for parliament to vote on it. Reuters is reporting as of late Sunday morning that a prominent Sunni […]

US attack on Mosque? It is so hard to tell what is really going on in Iraq now. A lot of Western reporters have left because of the poor security. So what do we make of this report in Al-Zaman (which is by no means anti-American)?– Ahmad Hamzah, reporting from Ramadi: “6 civilians were killed […]

The Constitution and the Bum Rush A perceptive reader writes to say that the short deadline for the parliamentary acceptance of the constitution means that most members of parliament probably won’t have time to read or study it carefully before the vote, and there will certainly be no proper debate on it. Is it right […]

Constitution Negotiations reach last Stage Meetings are still being held on the final issues bedeviling the finalization of the Iraqi constitution. Iraqi government spokesmen keep saying that 16 or 17 issues are outstanding and all should be resolved by August 15. In fact, most of these issues are intractable (Should Iraq be a centralized state, […]

Federalism Issue Bedevils Constitution Infighting Undermines Municipal Governments Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), has made his move. Giving a speech in the holy city of Najaf, he demanded that the nine southern Shiite-majority provinces be allowed to form a regional confederation that would deal with the […]