This NY Times report seems like it should have been a bigger deal:
Iraqi political leaders broke weeks of deadlock on Thursday, with Sunni Arabs accepting a compromise offer to increase their representation on the Shiite-led parliamentary committee that is to draft a constitution.
The agreement was a significant step forward in Iraq’s political process, which has been mired in arguments between Shiite and Sunni Arabs over how many Sunnis to include on the committee. Still, it fell short of being final, as political leaders have not yet agreed which Sunnis would be chosen as members.
The offer – 15 additional seats and 10 adviser positions for Sunni Arabs – was first made last week, but was rejected by many Sunnis, who said they wanted more seats. Since then, Shiite committee members sweetened the offer, saying the committee would approve the new constitution by consensus and not by vote, making the precise number of seats held by each group less important.
Time to declare victory? Of course not. But seeing as how “we need Sunni participation” is the gripe du jour of the anti-war crowd, it’s encouraging to see another hurdle cleared.