It looks like the end game is near on a new Iraqi Constitution, due out in one week. The pressure is on in two areas. First is on the Kurds

The United States and Britain are putting pressure on the main Iraqi Kurdish party to postpone its demands for a federalist state in Iraq until the country’s new constitution is approved, a Kurdish member for parliament says. But the lawmaker, Mahmud Othman, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Monday, that the Kurdish National Alliance “will not accept any postponement” of its demands for a federalist Iraq with full autonomy for the Kurdish areas.

Othman’s remarks follow those on Sunday by Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani, who said “no political grouping in Iraq is opposed to approving Kurdish federalism. Talabani, who is Kurdish, made the remarks just before heading into talks with other political leaders, aimed at overcoming the row over federalism, which has split the constitutional committee. The deadlock on the federalism issue is threatens to postpone the completion of the draft constitution by the scheduled deadline of 15 August.

While this may seem insurmountable, the law of zero sum games still applies. Without a constitution the Kurds have nothing, and waiting for perfection could mean never obtaining something quite close. This is the mistake Araft made with the Palestinian negotiations with Israel. I doubt there is not some compromise available.

On the flip side is the more difficult problem – how religous or sectarian the state should be.

By contrast, Shiites are divided. Some Shiites support the federal idea but are more inclined towards an “Islamic Federal Republic of Iraq” with Arabic as its official language and Islam as the bases of its constitution.

Others, like the Supreme Council of the Islamic revolution, demand an outright Islamic republic.

Some voices like those of current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafaari and his predecessor Iyad Allawi are more moderate.

In a meeting with PM al-Jafaari, moderate Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has recently said that Islam (but not alone) should play a role in the constitution.

This is the danger topic. If Islam becomes a part of the government it is not long before the fight breaks out on what form of Islam should be part of the government. This is a very telling topic. If Iraq comes out respecting all religions and forms of Islamic expression then it will survive. If not it will, in all likilihood, implode at some time. The good news is that the Sunnis are at the table again

They are back at the negotiating table after walking out in protest on July 19 for the murder of three of their leaders in a Baghdad restaurant.

As Sunni MP Kamal Hamdan recently suggested, Sunnis want the issue of federalism to be dealt with after US withdrawal and the constitution is approved

While they have their positions, they are weak ones. What they do have is the power to negotiate the solutions to religion. They need to use that power wisely.