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Iraqi lawmakers bristle under US push for oil law
By Sabah Jerges
AFP
BAGHDAD
Petroleumworld.com 07 16 07Iraqi lawmakers insisted Saturday they will proceed at their own pace in approving a controversial oil law -- a key plank for uniting the country's warring sects -- despite growing US pressure.
"The American side is putting pressure on us to pass the law in any form. They are concerned with the form of the law rather than the content of the law," said Omar Abdul-Sattar Mahmud from the Sunni National Concord Front, the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc.
The bill talks of equitable distribution of the country's oil wealth among the nation's rival Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities and is seen by Washington as a key plan for ending the civil conflict in the country.
Mahmud's faction, along with the followers of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, are currently boycotting parliament, but Mahmud said his members were participating unofficially in deliberations on the draft legislation.
On Thursday, the White House published an interim report in which it faulted the Iraqi government for making satisfactory progress on only eight of 18 security and political benchmarks set by the US Congress.
Baghdad was found to have made "unsatisfactory" progress on legislation explicitly endorsed by Washington as central to efforts to quieten sectarian violence, including the oil bill.
In his first reaction to the report, Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said it was "positive" but not entirely fair.
" We thought most of the report was positive but that does not mean that the report treated all the issues with accuracy," Maliki said, adding the country's political gridlock was to be expected.
" This is normal for a complicated situation like Iraq. We cannot say that the political situation in Iraq is easy because it is the first time in our history that we have a national unity government."
With a month-long holiday scheduled to begin in August, the assembly will be hard-pressed to meet the benchmarks by September, when the US military will publish an interim report on President George W. Bush's troop "surge" strategy.
Shortly after the report was published White House spokesman Tony Snow fielded questions from reporters about the holiday, which has drawn the ire of many in the United States.
" My understanding is at this juncture they're going to take August off, but you know, they may change their minds," Snow said.
" You know, it's 130 degrees (54 Celsius) in Baghdad in August."
Reminded that the heat affected the roughly 160,000 US troops in Iraq, Snow replied: "You know, that's a good point. And it's 130 degrees for the Iraqi military."
Vice President Dick Cheney and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker have tried to convince parliament not to take off at a time when US soldiers are fighting and dying and US support for the war is at a low ebb.
But some Iraqi lawmakers said the insistence reflected US rather than Iraqi priorities, and that the pressure could backfire."They have certain pressures, like public opinion about the war, but Iraqi politicians have other pressures," said MP Mahmud Othman, a Kurd.
" Now a lot of them are against the law because of the American pressure. They think it is an American law and they haven't even read it."
Othman added that many politicians may oppose the bill because they are angry at having to work through their holiday.
" They take holidays like anyone else. They have to go back to their constituencies, they have work to do, and if you put too much pressure on them they might not pass it because they are angry," he said.
In June lawmakers voted to reduce the summer holiday from two months to only one, and some called for further reductions.
" The country is burning and there is no reason for parliament to take leave at this time," said Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a senior member of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, a powerful Shiite party in Maliki's ruling coalition.
But even if parliament decides to work through the summer Hassan al-Sinade, an MP from Maliki's Dawa Party, said the efforts would still have to wait for a resolution of the twin parliamentary boycotts.
" The coalition and the Kurdish alliance prefer that the law be discussed when the Concord Front and the Sadr movement are back because it is a national project."
AFP 14 1022 GMT 07 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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