IRAQ: Iraq's most revered Shia cleric told Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari yesterday that the country's new constitution must ensure that all Iraqis, including politicians, are bound by the rule of law.
Mr Jaafari, a devout Shia, travelled to the holy city of Najaf yesterday for lengthy talks with the reclusive Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on the constitution, a document parliament is racing to complete by an August 15th deadline.
"Sistani emphasised ... that the constitution should reflect the different components of the Iraqi people, and it should express with sincerity and truth their sectarian, ethnic and political make-up," Mr Jaafari said.
"He insisted on the respect of law and that the law must prevail in Iraqi political life, with no differentiation among people, whatever their position in the state."
Ayatollah Sistani also affirmed the constitution should contain "nothing that conflicts with Islamic Sharia law", but he did not say whether he favoured wording that would define Sharia as the sole source of legislation or just one among many sources.
Secularists, women's groups and Kurds oppose emphasising the role of Islam as the sole influence on law.
Ayatollah Sistani is not part of the committee charged with drafting the document, nor is he an elected official, but his views are extremely influential among Iraq's majority Shia population and winning his support is crucial to the political process.
Also in Najaf, Mr Jaafari discussed the constitution with anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have led two bloody uprisings against US troops.
Sheikh Sadr appeared to give his blessing to efforts to draft the constitution but said his movement would not be directly involved, due to the continued presence of foreign troops in Iraq.
"I have no representative in the writing of the constitution and I distance myself from such political affairs because of the occupier, but he who wants to take part can," he told reporters.
The biggest problem facing the drafters of the constitution is federalism, and how resources should be divided in any federal structure. Kurds, who have had broad autonomy in north Iraq for 14 years, want a strict definition.
Meanwhile, US and Iraqi troops backed by American fighter aircraft attacked rebels in western Iraq yesterday, launching the latest in a series of offensives against insurgents in the volatile Euphrates river valley since May.
The military operation, dubbed Quick Strike, comes two days after 14 US marines were killed in a roadside bomb blast near the western town of Haditha, one of the deadliest attacks against US forces since the war began.
The blast, which brought the number of US troops to have died in Iraq to 1,820, has raised questions about whether Washington has underestimated the strength of the insurgency.
More than 20 US troops have died in western Iraq this month.
The new offensive, involving 1,000 troops, began on August 3rd and is focused on the Haditha area, but was not launched in response to the roadside bomb attack, a military spokesman said.
"The objectives are to interdict and disrupt the insurgents and foreign terrorists in Haditha, Haqlaniya and the Barwanah area," Lieut Col Steve Boylan said.