Middle East & North Africa / Comment
Iraqi Constitution Entrenches Grim Status Quo
13/09/2005 By Chris Toensing
Too often Iraq’s internal divides are portrayed as pitting “Sunnis” against everyone else, including the US military. In fact, and as will become increasingly clear, the main divide in Iraq is between “federalists” and “anti-federalists.”
Even if the political issues around federalism, oil and the role of Islam can be resolved peaceably in the long term, the decision of the Kurds and the Shiite religious parties to ram through their two-way bargain on the draft constitution certainly ensured the continuation of violence in the short term.
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Keywords
Civil society Civil war Conflict resolution DemocracyRelated publications
Bio author: Chris Toensing
Chris Toensing is executive director of the Washington-based Middle East Research and Information Project and editor of its quarterly magazine, Middle East Report. An Arabic speaker, he has travelled widely in the Arab world, including Iraq, and Egypt where he lived for three years. He holds an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University.
