The principal unresolved issue is whether to grant to the country's Shiite majority an autonomous region in the south.

In the south, the country's Shiite majority, while restive and suspicious, has largely chosen to go along for now.

Yet mounting an attack on Iraq's Shiite majority could rescue the movement, according to the document.

Creating a democratic Iraq will require shifting power toward the Shiite majority.

But this appears to be the first time that he has interceded directly on behalf of the Shiite majority.

Sunnis on the council balked; they fear the Shiite majority.

The Sunni minority has long ruled the country's Shiite majority.

In the south, you've got a Shiite majority that wants a "pale version of an Iranian state."

One flash point is the demand now being heard from the Shiite majority for swift elections.

Putting off the elections, though, would infuriate Iraq's Shiite majority.