Iraq: Sunni negotiator warns of "terrifying and dark future"

newsday-AP: Iraq's Shia-dominated constitution committee will submit an amended draft charter to parliament this weekend despite opposition from minority Sunni Arabs who rejected a proposed compromise, negotiators said early Saturday.

The committee chairman, Sheik Humam Hammoudi, a Shia, said "there has been an agreement on the differences including the federalism issue. This will give guarantees for the Sunnis." But Sunni negotiators said they did not accept the revised document and one, Saleh al-Mutlaq, called on Iraqis to reject it in the Oct. 15 referendum, warning of a "terrifying and dark future" for Iraq.

..Al-Mutlaq, the Sunni negotiator, told Al-Jazeera television of the breakdown in the talks after Sunnis studied the Shia offers. The Sunnis had asked that decisions on some issues be delayed until a new parliament is elected in December.

"It is important to present services for the Iraqis now, as well as to maintain security, and it is not important to write a piece of paper that all Iraqis disagree on," al-Mutlaq said.

"This is the end of the road," government spokesman Laith Kubba, a Shia, told Al-Arabiya television. "In the end, we will put this constitution to the people to decide." Read more