US warns Iraq Shi’ite Islamists not to impose will

By Alastair Macdonald

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The United States’ envoy in Iraq
delivered a warning on Saturday to Shi’ite Islamist leaders,
propelled to power by U.S. forces, not to use a new
constitution to impose discriminatory laws by majority rule.

A day after talks between Iraq’s Shi’ite prime minister and
its top Shi’ite ayatollah had revived fears among Sunnis and
Kurds of an Iranian-style Islamic state, ambassador Zalmay
Khalilzad said Washington insisted a draft constitution due out
this month must respect equal rights for women and minorities.

It was a clear public signal of U.S. determination to steer
the new Iraq after months of behind-the-scenes negotiation.

On the eve of a much-anticipated meeting of Iraqi leaders
that aims to break the deadlock on key issues, including the
role of Islamic law, the U.S. envoy said in a statement he had
met — unnamed — representatives of religious and ethnic
minorities:

“I assured them that the United States believes strongly
that the Iraqi constitution should provide equal rights before
the law for all Iraqis regardless of gender, race, ethnicity,
religion or sect … There can be no compromise.”

He went on: “Tomorrow the Iraqi leaders begin to meet to
finalize the draft constitution.
“I am hopeful that as these leaders gather and as the final
document emerges they will lay a foundation for a new Iraqi
nation where all of its citizens are able to participate and no
community is oppressed, marginalized or excluded.”

Shi’ite leaders, whose majority was oppressed under Saddam
Hussein and thrust to power in a January election made possible
by the U.S. invasion, say they do not want to emulate Shi’ite
neighbor Iran in imposing Islamic clerical rule, which critics
say discriminates against women and followers of other faiths.

Some Iraqis complain Islamists are already trying to curb
personal behavior such as women’s employment and alcohol sales.

WASHINGTON EYES TEHRAN

Washington, at daggers drawn with Tehran since the Islamic
revolution of 1979, is also wary of Iranian influence.

But it had previously limited public comment on the
drafting of the constitution, anxious not to be seen to be
controlling a process it hopes can draw the sting from the
revolt, legitimize and strengthen the Iraqi government and let
it begin pulling out U.S. troops after a new election at the
end of the year.

Kurdish and Sunni leaders spelled out key demands ahead of
Sunday evening’s talks at the home of President Jalal Talabani.

A prominent Sunni member of the drafting panel, which is
due to present its work to parliament by Aug. 15, accused
Islamist Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of tending toward
religious rule by meeting Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on
Friday and telling voters that Sistani broadly favored some of
his plans.

“It gives the impression people must follow these opinions,
which means clerical rule,” Saleh al-Mutlak of the National
Dialogue Council told Reuters after Jaafari met Sistani in the
Shi’ite holy city of Najaf after Friday prayers. “The Shi’ite
religious authority is interfering in political affairs.”

Jaafari said Sistani, who rarely appears in public, had
voiced cautious support for some kind of federal structure for
the new state — a issue that concerns some Sunnis who fear the
encroachment of already autonomous Kurds on northern cities and
their surrounding oilfields and Shi’ite control of southern
oil.

KURDS STAND FIRM

In the Kurdish parliament, regional president Masoud
Barzani assured legislators he would defend their interests in
seeking a share of oil, a continued role for their non-Arab
peshmerga militia forces and limitations on the scope of
Islamic law.

“We should be flexible in negotiations but that does not
mean we should haggle over our demands,” said Barzani, who led
forces that, with U.S. help, drove out Saddam’s troops in 1991.

Another Kurdish leader, Ghafour Makhmouri, told lawmakers:
“All our demands for the panel are red lines that cannot be
crossed. We will not soften them. They are our minimum rights.”

Late on Friday, southwestern Baghdad was rocked by
explosions and gunfire for several hours. A Reuters journalist
in the area saw groups of insurgents moving through, attacking
Iraqi and U.S. forces with machineguns and rockets.

It was the latest of several coordinated infantry assaults
on Iraqi government forces which analysts say demonstrates a
fair level of military expertise among guerrilla commanders.

The U.S. military said in a statement on Saturday that
tanks, helicopters and ground troops had fought back, killing
six insurgents and capturing 12. An Iraqi soldier was killed
and another wounded in one of two suicide vehicle attacks, it
said.

In all, the U.S. military said there were four attacks,
including with mortars and a suicide car bomb that was stopped
by a U.S. tank shell: “The Iraqi army took the fight to them
and succeeded. This success is what will help secure and
stabilize Iraq,” Major Liston Edge said in a statement, voicing
U.S. hopes that Iraqis can take over protecting the new
government.

American and Iraqi forces also pressed on with an offensive
west of the capital, around the city of Haditha. U.S. forces
said 24 suspects were in custody. A local doctor, Waleed al-
Hadithi, said six civilians were killed and eight wounded.

(Additional reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Haider Salaheddin
and Andrew Hammond in Baghdad, Shamal Aqrawi in Arbil and Majed
Hameed in Haditha)