Council prepares to sign the Iraqi interim constitution in Baghdad
today. Photo: Reuters
The 25 members of Iraq's Governing Council signed an interim constitution this morning after unanimously approving the landmark document.
The council gathered in Baghdad today, along with the top American and British administrators, Mr Paul Bremer and Mr Jeremy Greenstock, to review the document after a political impasse over some clauses was resolved yesterday.
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The clauses, which Iraq's top Shia cleric had objected to, remained unchanged.
"We must put the interests of our nation above all of our interests. The world is waiting and expecting us to work in the service of our nation," council president Mr Mohammed Bahr al-Ulloum told the meeting before the show of hands.
The council members then went to a public ceremony for the signing of the document.
The interim constitution is aimed at returning sovereignty to the Iraqi people. The signing of the constitution has been delayed twice - first by bomb attacks on Shias last week that killed at least 181 people, and then by the last-minute doubts among Shias on Friday.
Representatives of the five groups that backed out on Friday spent the weekend in the holy city of Najaf talking with top clerics including Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who wields immense influence over Iraq's 60 per cent Shia majority.
They announced yesterday Mr Sistani still had deep reservations about the document but had given them the go-ahead to sign it in the interests of advancing political transition.
Under a US timetable, an Iraqi government is to take over sovereignty on June 30th and elections are to be held by the end of January next year.
The main point of dispute has been a clause in the constitution that may allow Iraq's Sunni Muslim Kurdish minority to veto a planned permanent constitution if it does not enshrine their right to autonomy in three northern provinces.
The Kurds, who have ruled three provinces of northern Iraq since wresting them from Saddam Hussein's control after the 1991 Gulf war, had said that if the clause was not included they would not sign.
A half-hour before today's signing ceremony, a large explosions were heard in Baghdad and smoke rose from near the al-Mansour Hotel, about half a mile from the Convention Centre where the ceremony was to take place.
At least one of the blasts was caused by a rocket which hit a house in the centre of the city, witnesses said, adding that there were no casualties.
The US Army said it had no immediate information on the blasts. Security forces have been on high alert for possible guerrilla attacks aimed at disrupting the signing ceremony.
Agencies