AUGUST 18 LATE NIGHT UPDATE ON CONSTITUTIONAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003415 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2025 TAGS: IZ PGOV PHUM SUBJECT: AUGUST 18 LATE NIGHT UPDATE ON CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS REF: A) BAGHDAD 3410 B) BAGHDAD 3414 Classified By: Pol Couns Robert Ford, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) At around 23:00 August 18, following a full day of meetings with key Iraqi constituencies, the Ambassador concluded his evening meeting with Kurdish and Sunni leaders. After receiving the Shi,a counterproposal noted in ref B and discussing it with this group, final compromise appears near on the issues of federal/regional authorities, Kirkuk, the Constitutional Court, and the removal of a reference to Iraq as a &single unit.8 Kurdish members of this group, however ) most notably Masud Barzani ) reacted very negatively to a late-arriving Shi,a counterproposal on natural resources, which appears to differ only very little from their original proposal of national ownership and control over revenues. ¶2. (C) August 19 at 10:00, the Ambassador will convene a meeting of the senior Iraqi leadership to march through the text and attempt to settle the remaining issues. The major outstanding issue between Kurds and Arabs is the treatment of Iraq,s natural resources. Sunni members of the Constitution Committee have not yet reached an agreement with the Shi,a on how to approach the creation of new federal regions; this will also be another major issue at dispute. Our goal will be to hammer out a final deal on the text by the end of August 19. Khalilzad