IRAQ: Officials and commentators in the Arab world yesterday poured scorn on Iraq's new constitution, arguing that it does not recognise the country's Arab identity and undermines its unity by enshrining sectarianism as the basis of the political system.
Analysts took their cue from Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, who expressed widespread Arab fears that Iraq is likely to collapse into anarchy without a strong central government.
"I do not believe in this division between Shia and Sunni and Muslims and Christians and Arabs and Kurds," he stated. "I find in this a true recipe for chaos and perhaps catastrophe in Iraq and [ the countries] around it."
Before the war, he warned toppling the Baathist regime would "open the gates of hell".
League chairman Algerian foreign minister Abdel Aziz Belkhadem and secretary general of the Gulf Co-operation Council Abdel Rahman Attiya condemned the constitution for saying Iraq's Arab citizens "are part of the Arab nation" rather than Iraq is an Arab nation. While stating "the details of the constitution were an internal matter", Jordanian deputy prime minister Marwan Muasher said Jordan wants a "unified Iraq" and will always consider Iraq, a founder member of the Arab League, "as an Arab nation". The Saudi cabinet stressed the need to preserve Iraq's unity and Arab identity.
The English-language Arab News, published in Jeddah, called the constitution a "disaster in waiting". London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat said: "The project of a sectarian state or the notion of a sectarian ghetto inside the state is nothing short of suicide." Meanwhile, Palestinian daily Al-Quds al-Arabi said the constitution "will bring the worst result for Iraq, which used to be a haven of balance and stability in the world's tensest region. The virus of division, just like that of violence, will spread to Iraq's neighbours."
Key commentators have also expressed concern over provisions dealing with Iraq's vast oil wealth. Writing in London daily Al-Hayat, Randa Takieddine revealed the Kurds and the US pre-empted the constitution by signing an agreement on September 17th, 1998, which stipulates that the Kurdish provinces have the right to exploit oil and gas resources over 40 years. She warned that such a state of affairs can "only engender chaos and division", particularly if Kurdish tribal leaders "surrender [ Iraq's] oil sector to small, unknown companies" or attempt to negotiate with global corporations.
Her article followed the publication of a report by Walid Khadduri, Al-Hayat's economics editor and an Iraqi oil expert, which said the constitution gives legal status to contracts signed by the Kurds "for exploration and development of oil fields".
Agreements were reached in 2003 and 2004 by the Kurdish provincial government with two Turkish companies and one Norwegian firm which has conducted seismic surveys and is preparing to drill an exploratory well without reference to the oil ministry.
