Baghdad, Iraq - Shia leaders in Iraq demanded an autonomous region for the Shia-dominated south yesterday, raising the prospect of an oil-rich fiefdom dominated by conservative Muslim clerics.
The head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCITI), one of the main ruling parties, called for the creation of a federal southern state in a new national constitution due to be completed this weekend.
Abdul Aziz al-Hakim used a rally in the Shia holy city of Najaf to make one of the boldest pitches yet for a "Shiastan" encompassing the Gulf oilfields and almost half of Iraq's 26 million population.
"Regarding federalism, we think that it is necessary to form one entire region in the south," he told tens of thousands of chanting supporters.
Hadi al-Amery, head of the party's militia, the Badr Organisation, echoed the call for a Shia version of the autonomy enjoyed by Kurds in the north, declaring: "Federalism has to be in all of Iraq."
The SCIRI's cleric leaders have strong ties to Iran's theocracy and dominate the Shia bloc, which rules in coalition with the largely secular Kurds.
Some analysts suggested the call for southern autonomy was a negotiating ploy to gain leverage for making Islam the main source of legislation.
The prospect of autonomy dismayed Sunni Arabs who fear being marginalised in the centre of Iraq. Secular Shias and women's rights advocates were more alarmed at the spectre of Islamic sharia law being imposed on a region stretching from Kerbala in the centre to Basra in the south.
Negotiators from Iraq's main religious and ethnic groups have a deadline to agree a draft constitution by tomorrow, giving parliament until Monday to approve the text and submit it to voters for a referendum on October 15.
All sides accept that Kurds will retain the autonomy they have enjoyed since the 1991 Gulf war. But the drive to mirror that with autonomy for the south has encountered fierce opposition.
Sunnis fear that Iraq will disintegrate, or at least fracture, if Shias and Kurds control the oil wells and leave Sunnis with only the "sands of Anbar", a vast, barren province.
"We hoped this day would never come," said Saleh al-Mutlak, a leading Sunni politician. "We believe that the Arabs, whether Sunni or Shia, are one. We totally reject any attempt to stir up sectarian issues to divide Iraq."
Sunnis were a dominant minority under the deposed president, Saddam Hussein, and Sunni militants are driving the insurgency. The Shia prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, is keen to draw them into the political process, and this is one reason he opposes southern autonomy.
"The idea of a Shia region is unacceptable to us," his spokesman said yesterday.
After decades of oppression under Saddam, Shia conservatives emerged after the United States-led invasion two years ago to impose Islamic rule on the south, closing alcohol shops, curtailing music and encouraging women to wear headscarves. Having swept elections in January, conservatives boast a democratic mandate, but secular Shias and liberals say voters did not call for oppression and intolerance.
"We're against federalism because we are against sharia. That is our fear," said Ghareba Ghareb of the Iraqi Women's Association. She hoped a centralised Baghdad government would rein in militant clerics.
US officials have been pushing hard for the constitution deadline to be met, seeing the process as a way to quell the insurgency and reduce foreign troop levels. If a draft constitution is agreed and passed in a referendum it will pave the way for elections in December.
As the deadline looms, negotiators are haggling over whether the Republic of Iraq should be renamed the Federal Republic of Iraq, the Islamic Republic or the Federal Islamic Republic.
Iraq's al-Qaida group vowed yesterday to kill anyone involved in drafting the constitution. The group, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, says that sharia law should be the only legislation to govern Iraq.