BAGHDAD: Iraq’s Cabinet yesterday approved a security pact with the United States that will allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their UN mandate expires at the end of the year.
The decision followed months of difficult negotiations and, pending parliamentary approval, will remove a major point of contention between the two allies. Parliament’s Deputy Speaker Khalid Al-Attiyah said he expected the 275-member legislature to begin debating the document this week and vote on it by Nov. 24.
Government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said all but one of the 28 Cabinet ministers present in yesterday’s meeting, in addition to Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, voted for the pact by a show of hands.
The Cabinet has 37 members and it was not immediately clear why some ministers stayed away. Several of them were believed to be traveling abroad.
“This is an important and positive step,” said US Embassy spokesman Adam Ereli.
Violence continues to plague parts of Iraq despite a dramatic improvement in security over the past year, and the attacks underscore the notion that Iraq’s nascent security forces still need US backing to counter the insurgency.
Parliament is due to go into recess at the end of the month or in early December because of the Eid Al-Adha holiday. Speaker Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani canceled all leave for lawmakers and suspended foreign and out-of-town visits to ensure that the house secures a quorum for the security pact vote, Al-Attiyah said.
“I’m optimistic that this agreement will be passed through the Council of Representatives (Parliament),” spokesman Al-Dabbagh told Associated Press Television News. But he added: “You cannot guarantee 100 percent approval of anything.” Neighboring Iran has bitterly opposed the pact on grounds that it enshrines the US military presence in Iraq and threatens its security and regional influence. However, Iranian state television took a more nuanced position in a commentary yesterday after it became clear that emboldened Iraqi leaders were going their own way on the pact.
“This is a victory for the Al-Maliki government, which was able to apply its own viewpoints,” it said in a possible reference to American concessions to demands from Iraqi negotiators.
Followers of Moqtada Sadr protested yesterday’s vote. “This agreement hands Iraq over (to the United States) on a golden platter and for an indefinite period,” said Ahmed Al-Massoudi, spokesman for the 30-seat Sadrist bloc in Parliament. Sadr, whose militiamen fought US forces in three uprisings since 2003, has threatened to resume attacks on US forces if they don’t immediately begin to withdraw from Iraq.
The Cabinet vote came a day after the country’s most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, indicated that he would not object to the pact if it is passed by a comfortable majority in Parliament. That cleared a major hurdle to the agreement.
The final draft of the agreement is designed to meet Iraqi concerns over its sovereignty and its security needs as it continues to grapple with a diminished but persistent insurgency.
It provides for the departure of US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011 and gives Iraq the right to try US soldiers and defense contractors in the case of serious crimes committed off-duty and off-base. It also prohibits the US from using Iraqi territory to attack Iraq’s neighbors, like Syria and Iran.
