US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3948

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003948 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, KDEM, IZ, Sunni Arab 
SUBJECT: DISSENSION WITHIN SUNNI ARAB HARD-LINE RANKS 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Ford for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Sunni Arab Sa'adoon al-Zubaidi, a member of the 
hard-line, Sunni Arab-dominated Iraqi Council of National 
Dialogue (ICND) told PolOff September 22 that in the last 
several days there has been no effort by Sunni Arab 
representatives to propose specific changes to Kurdish or 
Shia leaders that would enable the Sunni Arabs to support 
the draft constitution.  Zubaidi said that there has been 
some debate within the ICND about possibly supporting the 
constitution.  However, he said the majority of the 
membership currently advocates voting "no" in the October 
15 referendum. 
 
2. (C)   Zubaidi charged that ICND spokesman Saleh Mutlak 
has undermined Dialogue group in a self-serving effort to 
enhance his image on the Sunni Arab street. In particular, 
Zubaidi said Mutlak had discredited the ICND with the 
announcement that he would gather 5 million signatures on 
petitions against the constitution.  Zubaidi said the real 
purpose of the effort was to register individuals as 
members of Mutlak's proposed "National Front". Mutlak 
expects widespread forgery in the referendum vote, and he 
wants to use his signatures to reflect what he thinks is 
the real number of "no" votes. Zubaidi added that he fully 
expects Mutlak himself to forge signatures on his 
petitions. 
 
3. (C) Poloff said that it was important that internal 
competition within the Sunni Arab parties not impede 
engagement in the political process.  He said that passage 
of the new constitution would be in the interests of all 
Iraqis. 
 
4.  (C)  Comment:  While Mutlak is gathering signatures, 
there are signs elsewhere that members of the Dialog 
Council still hope to tweak the draft constitution text 
such that they can support it.  Overall, our sense is that 
the Dialog Council, and Sunni Arab ranks broadly, are 
unsure of the way forward.  That indecision and internal 
dissension gives us a short-lived opening to try again to 
secure Kurd-Shia agreement to amend the text slightly in a 
couple areas in return for wider Sunni Arab support the 
draft constitution publicly. 
Khalilzad