This comes as negotiations on a new Iraqi constitution remain deadlocked. Today is the deadline for the National Assembly to draft a constitution. The New York Times reports that Shiite leaders are considering asking the National Assembly to approve the constitution without the agreement of the country’s Sunni leaders. Iraq’s Sunni leadership has criticized a Shiite proposal to create an autonomous Shiite region in the oil-rich southern portion of Iraq. Negotiations are also ongoing over the role of Islam in the state and the rights of women. And the Washington Post reports that U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad attempted to break the deadlock by presenting a U.S.-backed draft of the Iraqi Constitution. One Kurdish legislator described the U.S. draft as a “almost full version of a constitution.” He said “The U.S. officials are more interested in the Iraqi constitution than the Iraqis themselves.”