Key Points
- A committee of Sunni figures is preparing a broad conference on the community's future with the Iraqi state.
- A committee source told +ontime the gathering targets elites and provinces, not electoral alliances or posts.
- A Sunni federal region will be discussed, testing whether the idea becomes an organized constitutional project.
The latest:
Preparations are under way for a wide conference on the future of Iraq’s Sunnis, led by a committee that includes representatives of the main Sunni provinces, a committee source told +ontime. Its founding statement places relations with the state, weapons outside state control, federalism and the shape of the political system at the center of the debate, while insisting the initiative is not an electoral alliance.
Details:
- The initiators: The source said the committee was formed on an initiative by Osama al-Nujaifi, Dhafir al-Ani, Rafi al-Issawi and Mishaan al-Jubouri, and includes representatives of the main Sunni provinces. No date or venue has been announced for the conference.
- Who is invited: The statement calls for a conference of Sunni elites spanning academic, intellectual, social, legal, political, economic, tribal and youth figures, with attention to geographic spread and internal diversity rather than party representation. The source said the committee also wants university professors, activists, tribal sheikhs and clerics, and aims to guarantee genuine representation for women.
- Not about elections: The statement stresses the initiative is neither an electoral alliance nor a framework for dividing government posts, presenting itself instead as an attempt to open debate on the future of the community and of the Iraqi state.
- The region question: The source told +ontime that the option of a Sunni federal region will be on the agenda, but described it as not the pressing issue at present, before the orientations of different segments of Sunni society are known.
- Weapons and the state: The statement says Iraq’s Sunnis do not want war or civil strife, but rejects the continued presence of armed groups not exclusively under state authority, and calls for discussing all peaceful and constitutional options without political taboos.
- Venue options: The committee is seeking a safe and neutral location, listing Erbil, Amman, Damascus, Abu Dhabi and Ankara among possibilities, with the stated aim of answering how a secure Sunni future can be secured under constitutional state authority.
- Grievances cited: The source alleged that over 23 years Sunnis endured injustice, displacement and marginalization, and accused earlier Sunni leaders of squandering the community’s rights through concessions. These are the source’s political positions, not independently established facts.
- Accusations in Baghdad: The source also accused Shia forces that led the state of preferring “power over the state,” of allowing foreign interference and of failing to respect Sunni sanctities and symbols. Those claims were not accompanied by a response from the parties named.
- External backing: ontime+ learned from informed sources that the project enjoys support from Kurdish leaders and faces no American objection, with possible regional backing from Jordan, Syria and some Gulf states. The sources gave no details on the nature of that support or the level of contacts.
Background:
The statement questions whether Iraq’s centralized state, more than two decades into the current political system, can deliver security, equality and genuine partnership, and asks whether federalism or broader decentralization offers an alternative framework.
Between the lines:
The most sensitive question is whether the initiative is laying political ground for reviving a Sunni region. The source does not deny the idea is on the table but frames it as a constitutional option requiring a reading of Sunni opinion first, not a decision the committee has taken. He argues a region would mean neither separation nor partition, but a constitutional way to reorganize relations with Baghdad — a framing that sits alongside the statement’s rejection of armed groups outside state control.
What’s next
Watch who actually attends and which constituencies endorse the agenda: that will determine whether the federal region shifts from an open question to an organized constitutional project, and whether Kurdish and regional backing becomes explicit.
