BAGHDAD — A proposal to establish a semi-independent state in the oil-rich Shiite Muslim heartland in southern Iraq has polarized negotiations over the country's new constitution, with a Monday deadline looming for submission of the document to parliament.
Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni Arab negotiators met through the Arab weekend Friday, with the most divisive remaining roadblock the proposal for a federalist system with strong regional governments tied to a relatively weak central authority in Baghdad.
"That's the biggest one," said Iyad Samarrai, a Sunni and a senior official with the Iraqi Islamic Party who took part in Friday's talks. "When this issue is solved, all the others will be solved."
Kurdish and Shiite politicians have backed a scenario that would essentially split Iraq into three semiautonomous regions: a Kurdish north, Sunni Arab middle and Shiite Muslim south.
"The only problem is with our Sunni brothers. We and the Kurds are in agreement," said Jawad Maliki, a senior Shiite politician and member of the committee drafting the constitution. The Sunnis, he complained, "only want federalism for the Kurds."
Still, Maliki predicted the negotiations would wrap up ahead of schedule.
"God willing, we'll be finished and ready to present to the National Assembly on Sunday," he said.
Iraq's Kurdish north has enjoyed de facto autonomy since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the region came under U.S. and British protection from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's forces.
The continuation of Kurdish autonomy has been expected, but Sunni groups, including Samarrai's party, remain deeply opposed to extending the Kurdish model to other parts of the nation.
"We accept the federal system for Kurdistan," Samarrai said. "But we prefer the Arab regions in Iraq to live in a centralized system."
Kurds and Shiite Muslims have a long history of oppression at the hands of a strong central government dominated by minority Sunnis, and they are leery of concentrating too much authority in Baghdad. Sunnis, however, fear the creeping disintegration of the country.
The issue is intertwined with economics.
Iraq's considerable oil wealth is concentrated in the north and south, and Kurds and Shiites argue that each regional government should receive the lion's share of its area's oil revenue.
