They've postponed for a week:
Still deadlocked after days of negotiations, Iraq's leaders decided today to give themselves another week to agree on a new constitution and resolve a series of fundamental disagreements over the future and identity of this fractious land.Now, I am no Iraqi expert, but the remaining issues seem to be more than a little complicated. The role of Islam? The rights of women? Oil? Are these the noble causes for which Bush sent our troops to die?
After meeting for several hours inside the protected Green Zone here, a group of senior Iraqi leaders told the National Assembly that they were unable to resolve a number of critical issues, including the role of Islam, the rights of women, the sharing of the country's vast oil wealth and whether to grant the majority Shiites their own semi-independent region in the south.
UPDATE: Atrios reports, via Juan Cole, that a delay like this is illegal under the Transitional Administrative Law -- they had to ask for the delay by August 1st. According to Cole:
Thus, according to the existing interim constitution, the plan of extending the deadline at this late date is clearly unconstitutional, and parliament should instead be dissolved and new elections held. (They have to be held no later than December, but could be held, e.g., in September or October in principle).
UPDATE: The delay is constitutional if 3/4 of the National Assembly approved it, which they did. Thanks to Atrios for the clarification.
