Kurds to offer no concessions on federalism: envoy

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A high-level Kurdish representative in the United States warned that Kurds will not back down from their demand for turning Iraq into a federal state, and the ethnic group has already made all the concessions it could.

"Federalism is the absolute minimum the people of Iraqi Kurdistan will accept," Qubad Talabani, representative of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the United States and son of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, wrote in The Wall Street Journal.

"Certainly, none should expect Kurds to reverse the progress that we have made in setting up functioning institutions such as the Kurdistan Regional Government and the elected Kurdistan National Assembly," the envoy pointed out.

The warning came as representatives of various Iraqi factions scrambled to meet a midnight deadline for presenting the draft of the country's permanent constitution.

But serious stumbling blocks, including the future organization of the Iraqi state, women's rights and the role of Islam, remained.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050822/pl_afp/usiraqconstitution_050822124241

ay yay yay... :eyes:

expect deadline extension to be announced shortly.

n/t

of course, each time they extend, they look more and more foolish, so...

This is the single best chance they've had to control their own destiny since Saladin died 900 years ago.

Whether it's part of a federal republic or not, an independent Kurdistan was a given since the first day of the US invasion.

Iraqis inching closer to a constitution Shiite autonomy, Islam's role unsettled as deadline nears
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/22/MNGJGEBAS11.DTL