COR DEPUTY SPEAKER GIVES UPDATE ON KEY LEGISLATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 001562

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/10/2017
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: COR DEPUTY SPEAKER GIVES UPDATE ON KEY LEGISLATION

Classified By: Political Counselor Margaret Scobey for reasons 1.4 (b)
and (d).


1. (C) In a May 10 meeting with Khalid al-Attiya, First
Deputy Speaker of the Council of Representatives, PolCouns
raised the following USG priorities:

-- Provincial powers law. Al-Attiya said that the
government had not yet forwarded its comments to the CoR and
that he had urged Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs
Safa al-Safi to hurry up.

-- Elections law. Al-Attiya said that a new elections law
was needed. Because the law would require a number of
political decisions, al-Attiya said the CoR, and specifically
the legal committee, would be the appropriate body to draft
it, as opposed to the newly formed Independent Higher
Election Commission. He said that the CoR might support an
open list system if there were "an easing up" in the current
political and security climate.

-- DeBaathification reform. Al-Attiya noted that there was
"the will to rethink" the deBaathification law but
acknowledged that it was not a political priority for the
Shi'a, as they were "wondering what they would get."
PolCouns noted that deBaathification reform had become a
symbolic issue and as such offered an opportunity to work
toward reconciliation.

-- Constitutional review. Al-Attiya said that, as the CoR
would not be in session May 15, the Constitutional Review
Committee (CRC) would be allowed until the following session
(likely May 22) to submit its recommendations. He noted that
the CRC was making progress but that the key bloc leaders had
not become involved. Their involvement would be necessary,
he continued, to develop solutions to contested issues such
as division of resources and the powers of regions vice the
federal government. He urged the USG to put pressure on the
bloc leaders to become involved in finding compromises on
these issues, arguing that constitutional review was
important because its outcome would impact other important
laws.

-- The draft law forming a Ministry of National Security
(MNS). Al-Attiya confirmed that the draft law had received a
first reading in the CoR but said he did not expect it to
move quickly. PolCouns noted that the law "could almost have
been written by Saddam" as it created a powerful institution
with little transparency or judicial oversight. She urged
al-Attiya to make sure that CoR members read it closely and
considered it carefully. Al-Attiya urged the Embassy to
write its "observations" on the law in Arabic and distribute
them to key CoR members.


2. (C) PolCouns emphasized to al-Attiya how important it was
to see progress on key reconciliation legislation in the CoR,
"to prove to Iraq's doubters that the democratic system
promotes compromise and reconciliation." Al-Attiya responded
that he felt confidence that important legislative items
would advance as long as the constitutional review process
set the correct political framework and if the security
situation improved.
CROCKER