One Week Postponement Iraqi Parliament

Juan Cole 08/15/2005

One-Week Postponement

The Iraqi parliament voted to amend the interim constitution to allow the permanent constitution to be presented for a vote on August 22 rather than Aug. 15. That gives negotiators one more week to work out a deal.

The one-week extension is clever, since it avoids the dissolution of parliament and it keeps the pressure on the various parties to agree.

It is not clear, however, what difference a week will make.

I suppose they could serially amend the interim constitution to allow further delays, but at some point this procedure will begin to look silly.

Anyway, one cliff-hanger is over, and now yet another one begins.

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page