BAGHDAD: Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr held up a vote on Saturday to approve a deal allowing British troops to remain in Iraq longer than previously agreed to help the local navy protect oil platforms.
The deal would permit up to 100 British troops to remain beyond June 30, the withdrawal date set in a previously approved British-Iraqi security pact.
A source close to Deputy Speaker Khalid Al-Attiya said that the session was suspended shortly after it began when lawmakers loyal to the cleric, who galvanized opposition to the US-led foreign presence in Iraq, walked out before a planned vote on the deal. With no quorum, the session could not formally continue, but Parliament is likely to take it up again at a later date.
Aqeel Abdul-Hussein, head of the Sadr bloc in Parliament, told reporters afterward that Sadr supporters opposed any agreements backing the presence of foreign troops.
The deal “is an extension of occupation forces which no noble person can accept... We call upon our people to support us in this challenge,” he said.
Both Britain and the United States reached deals with the Iraqi government, which were approved by Parliament, to allow their troops to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expired at the end of 2008. British officials say remaining forces will focus on protecting oil platforms off Iraq’s southern coast, where most of Iraq’s oil exports are shipped, and on training Iraqis. Meanwhile, a car bomb in a market killed at least four people and wounded 50 in Mosul on Saturday, police said.
The latest bomb struck an area of eastern Mosul largely inhabited by the minority Shabak ethnic group who speak Kurdish. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki on Saturday renewed a call for the Iraqi constitution to be changed to concentrate more power with the central government in Baghdad. “The constitution is not perfect and is not a good formula for building a modern state,” he told a meeting of sheikhs in the Iraqi capital.
“It played a role during a difficult period of Iraq’s history but it absolutely needs to be changed to build the state. When I talk of changes, they must be constitutional ... and not reached by intimidation or the bullying of others.”
Al-Maliki hopes to strengthen the central government’s powers, but Iraqi Kurds have firmly rejected any constitutional changes for fear of losing any of their autonomy.
Al-Maliki rejected calls for an amnesty for insurgents. “Reconciliation ... with murderers and criminals will not be achieved,” he told the sheikhs. “It is not fair to reconcile with those who made women widows, children orphans, destroyed the country, launched wars and were not excused until now,” he said, referring to members of executed former President Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party who joined the insurgency.
Fatal mistake
A truck driver was mistakenly killed by American forces outside the northern city of Tikrit, the US Army said on Saturday.
The troops had stopped along a highway between Tikrit and Balad, north of the capital, after one of the vehicles in their logistics convoy broke down early Friday.
They signaled for the truck, which was approaching the convoy from the rear, to stop but it sped up as it closed in, according to a statement. A soldier then fired on the truck after the driver did not respond to the warnings, killing him.
The incident is under joint US-Iraqi investigation.
