Region | Iraq
Federal fever hits Basra parliamentarians
A number of Iraqi Parliament members have declared their campaign to make Basra a federal entity within Iraq, Arab media has reported.
- By Dr. Abdul Hadi Al Timimi, Abu Dhabi Editor
- Published: 23:49 August 10, 2008
- Basra is the second largest city in Iraq, about 550km south of Baghdad
- It sits on approximately a third of Iraq's proven oil reserves and production.
- It is the only sea outlet of the country and port on the Gulf to the outside world, through which the bulk of its food, goods and construction shipments are loaded. The majority of its population is Shiites.
-
US told to give 'very clear' exit timeline
US told to give 'very clear' exit timeline
-
Mehdi Army to disarm if US withdraws
Al Sadr's Mehdi Army to disarm if US withdraws on time
Dubai: A number of Iraqi Parliament members have declared their campaign to make Basra a federal entity within Iraq, Arab media has reported.
The campaign which is supported by Basra Governor Mohammad Musbah Al Waili and Member of Parliament Wail Abdul Latif, will include collecting thousands of signatures of people and tribal chiefs, to promote their drive, the reports said.
The call is mainly based on the federal concept in the Iraqi post-invasion post-Saddam constitution which was written by an American Jew, Noah Fieldman, who was the constitutional adviser to Paul Bremer, the US post-invasion Governor of Iraq.
Abdul Latif and Al Waili believe that a federal status for Basra would benefit its over two million population from its oil riches rather than "begging the government for funds".
Both have publicly complained of what they described as "Basra political marginalisation".
Basra is the second largest city in Iraq, about 550km south of Baghdad, which sits on approximately a third of Iraq's proven oil reserves and production.
Federalism, its nature and implication have been one of the most controversial and undefined political concepts and issues in post-Saddam Iraq. The concept and its inclusion in the political Iraqi jargons had been the mainstays of Iraqi Kurds campaigns.
The constitution of 2005 allows in its paragraph 115 regions and governorates to form their federal entity and have their own constitution (according to paragraph 116).
Autonomy law
Iraq's Kurds, unlike their Iranian or Turkish compatriots, had been granted a self-autonomy by the then Saddam Government which was implemented fully in 1975 after the Algiers agreement between Saddam and Iran's Shah who withdrew his country's military and logistical support for a Kurdish rebellion in Northern Iraq.
By that autonomy law the Kurds were able to have their regional government, legislative council, recognition of their language and a role in the central government.
However, Kurds have always aspired for independence from Iraq. The regional geopolitics and powers and interests have blocked it either directly or indirectly through discouraging the Iraqi Kurds from pursuing such an ambition.
The Iraqi Kurds found their golden opportunity in the US-UK determination to topple Saddam's regime and thus had contributed to the invasion and occupation of Iraq in return for a support for their political campaigns for self-determination and independence.
Having encountered domestic and regional opposition, they settled down in the London Metropole Meeting of the US-supported Iraqi opposition parties in 2002, for a federal state. It is a de facto realisation since the Kurds were outside the central government control since 1991.
The new federalist drive will give an impetus to the main Shiite parties demand for a separate federalism of the central and southern parts of Iraq.
Such attempts have been vehemently opposed previously by the Sunnis whose areas are almost poor in oil.
Factfile: Did you know?
Share this article
Related Articles
Popular in News
News Editor's choice
-
Reader helps police to bust brothel
More than 20 gang members recently arrested from running brothels in Dubai
-
Philippine areas under emergency rule
Toll rises to 46 in brutal kidnap and murder in the south
-
Obama seeks to reassure Singh on ties
Singh is on elaborate state visit that will include talks on US ties with Pakistan
