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Sunnis want slowdown in Iraqi changes

Shortly before missing a second deadline in a week for finishing a draft constitution, Iraq`s top political leaders executed a legal maneuver to buy more time for negotiations without explicitly calling it another delay. But delay - a short one to be sure - was once again the outcome of marathon negotiations, reflecting the deep divide between Iraq`s Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs, and Kurds about the fundamental structure of the state. For the past few days, Iraq`s Sunni Arab political leaders have complained they were being ignored by Kurdish and Shiite negotiators, and that they were not going to agree to a constitution on schedule, even as Kurds and Shiites insisted that a draft would be submitted on time, with or without Sunni support.Now, forging a consensus that might turn the constitution into a sort of peace pact looks it will take more time.

The situation has put the US in a strange role in the new Iraq: protectors, for now at least, of Sunni interests. The US envoy and Iraq`s Sunni Arab leadership might seem strange bedfellows. The Sunnis continue to refer to the country`s Sunni-led insurgency as the "resistance" and often view the US project here as determined to convert them into Iraq`s new underclass. After all, the toppling of Saddam Hussein lifted the boot from the necks of Iraq`s Kurds and Shiites, and ended the dominant status of Iraq`s Sunni Arab minority. But indefinite delay does not look likely. While Iraq`s Sunnis would like the interim parliament dissolved and fresh elections held - in which they expect to win more seats - before a constitution is written, both Shiites and Kurd`s are chomping at the bit.

Iraq`s Shiite majority, who control the interim parliament, are eager to take control of a fully sovereign nation. Iraq`s ethnic Kurds, who have fought the central government from their northern stronghold for much of the last 80 years, are also eager for a quick result that will create a federal Iraq that guarantees them wide autonomy. The main outstanding issue now is the question of federalism and how the government of Iraq will be organized: highly centralized, as in the days of the Hussein dictatorship, or federalized, with provinces having a say in their own affairs and power divided.