REGIONS LAW ACTION NOW SET FOR SEPTEMBER 24

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003534

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/20/2016
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: REGIONS LAW ACTION NOW SET FOR SEPTEMBER 24

Classified by Political Counselor Margaret Scobey, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) CoR Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashadani announced to the CoR
September 20 that the parliamentary bloc leaders had agreed
to delay action on the region formation law until September

24. The agreement states that "we agreed on how to deal with
these issues, among them the draft law on region formation
and the formation of the Constitutional Review Committee
(CRC),within three days." It was signed by the CoR's
leadership and the political bloc leaders, including Jalal
al-Din al-Sagheer (SCIRI - Shia coalition),Hadi al-Amiri
(Badr Organization - Shia coalition),Adnan Duleimi (IPC --
Tawafuq - Sunni),Ayad al-Sammarai (IIP - Tawafuq),Fuad
Masoum (PUK - Kurdish Alliance),and Osama an-Najafi
(Iraqiyya - secular).


2. (C) SCIRI member Ridha Jawad Taqi confirmed to PolOffs
September 20 that the major blocs had agreed to postpone the
first reading of the regions law until September 24.
According to Taqi, proposed legislation will contain
assurances that the regions law cannot be implemented until
after the constitutional review process finishes. The
constitutional review process, he said, would begin in the
coming days with the formation of a review committee.


3. (C) Taqi said he felt confident that Tawafuq would honor
this agreement, noting that according to Tawafuq's leaders
"most people in their bloc were comfortable with this
approach, but that they needed an extra three days to keep
talking with those that still had reservations.8 Taqi said
that within the Shia coalition (UIC),every party except the
Sadrists and Fadhila were supportive of the agreement. &The
Sadrists are taking their usual position that the occupation
must end first,8 he said, &and Fadhila is sitting on the
fence until the last moment.8


4. (C) In a separate meeting September 20, Hamid Majeed
Mousa, CoR member (Iraqiyya) and Communist Party leader, told
PolCouns that Iraqiyya had also presented a draft region
formation law that would not go into effect until the
Constitutional Review Committee had finished its work, and
would limit the size of regions to two or three governorates
in the beginning. He said there is broad agreement for
delaying the implementation of the region formation law until
the constitutional review process ends, but that Tawafuq was
still pushing for a delay of two years. According to Mousa,
the various drafts of the region formation law will be
referred to the legal committee on September 24, which will
produce a unified draft for a first reading at a later date.
He acknowledged that producing such a unified draft that
could be accepted by all parties could take weeks.


5. (C) END COMMENT. This is the third agreement announced
regarding the region formation law, joining the agreements of
September 7 and September 10. It remains to be seen if the
political blocs, particularly Tawafuq, will stand by this
agreement. END COMMENT.
SPECKHARD