Kurdistan Observer

Erbil, 22 August (AKI) - The president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, Massud Barzani, has rejected Sharia or Islamic law as a model for a new Iraqi state. "We respect all points of view, but will not accept compromises over what we believe are our democratic rights. The Kurds are fighting for a new, federal and democratic Iraq," he said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica published on Monday.

"As I said to those who are engaged in drafting Iraq's new constitution in Baghdad, and to the 111 members of the Kurdish regional parliament, we categorically reject a state that is based on Islamist principles," Barzani emphasised. A withdrawal of the United-States led coalition from Iraq would be "a disaster at this point," he said.

The role that Sharia law should play in the new Iraq is, together with federalism, women's rights, and Kurdish demands secede, is one of the main sticking-points that have caused delays in the drafting of the country's new constitution. If it fails to meet a midnight deadline on Monday, parliament could be be dissolved.

On the question of Kurdish secession, Barzani said: "We are asking for a more territorial autonomy and a preferably secular state."

"The Kurds have accepted independence and self-determination. In exchange for this sacrifice, we ask for guarantees that several of our conditions will be respected, such as the question of the return of Kurdish refugees from Saddam Hussein's regime, and the maintenance of the (Kurdish) Pershmerga militias, who needs to stay and defend the north of our country".

The disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk is "Iraqi but also Kurdish" Barzani said. "If our conditions are not accepted, our people will reject the new Iraqi constitution. If the Iraqi parliament signs off on the constitution on Monday, it will be put to Iraq's voters in a referendum on 15 October.