IRAQ: Iraqi Sunni and secular politicians yesterday rejected the contention of Abdel Aziz Hakim, the head of the Shia United Iraqi Front, that there could be no substantive changes in the constitution adopted by referendum last October.
In a statement broadcast on state television, Mr Hakim said that provisions dealing with "the formation of autonomous regions cannot feature in any bargaining".
His bloc of Shia religious parties is expected to control 138 seats in the 275-member assembly and in alliance with the Kurds, who also support regionalisation, will be able to muster the two-thirds majority necessary to block Sunni amendments.
Adnan Dulaimi, leader of the Iraq Accord Front, a Sunni religious grouping, said he is "determined to change all articles that risk a division of Iraq". Saleh Mutlak, head of the secular Arab National Dialogue Front, complained that Sunni Arabs and secularists were persuaded to participate in the referendum and the parliamentary elections by a provision that permits the amendment of the constitution during the first four months of the term of the new government.
"If they do not accept key amendments to the country's new constitution, including the regions issue, then let them work alone and divide the country, we do not accept this," he said.
Sunnis want a strong central government in charge of dispersing oil revenues while Kurds and Shias demand a weak central authority and autonomous regions exerting control over oil resources located in the Kurdish north and Shia south.
Opponents of the constitution protest that the referendum was rigged to deprive them of the two-thirds vote in three provinces needed to defeat the document.
Refusal to even consider amendments on the key issue of regional autonomy could fuel the insurgency, which is being mounted by Sunni religious and secular factions.
