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| Iraq |
| Iraq says US deal would ban strikes on neighbors |
| 2008-10-30 |
| President George W. Bush on Wednesday said he was hopeful and confident an agreement on the future of U.S. troops in Iraq would be approved and that the United States was analyzing changes Baghdad wanted. Iraq last week said that it wanted changes to a final draft hammered out after months of negotiations with the United States. The draft agreement called for a drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011 and dictated how cases in which U.S. troops breached Iraqi law would be handled. The United States was reviewing amendments to the status of forces agreement (SOFA) that were received from Iraq on Wednesday, Bush said, seated next to Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, after they met at the White House. "I informed the president we received amendments today from the government, we're analyzing those amendments, we obviously want to be helpful and constructive without undermining basic principles," Bush said. "And I remain very hopeful and confident that the SOFA will get passed," he said. Bush praised Barzani for being a "strong advocate" of the Iraqi government passing the agreement. Amendments to the pact Amendments sought by Iraq to the security pact with the United States would ban U.S. forces from striking neighboring countries from Iraqi territory, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Wednesday. U.S. negotiators began on Wednesday to scrutinize the changes demanded by Iraq to the stalled security pact which sets the conditions under which American troops could operate in the country after this year. The Iraqi cabinet proposed the changes on Tuesday and sent them straight to the Americans. U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said: "We got them. We are looking at them." Both sides were working hard to reach an agreement before the existing U.N. Security Council mandate for the roughly 150,000-strong U.S. force expires at the end of the year, U.S. military spokesman Brigadier-General David Perkins said. "Nobody wants to turn the clock back. Nobody wants to lose the security that has been hard fought and gained." Striking on neighbors Iraq irked Washington by announcing last week that it wanted changes to the pact, which was hammered out by top U.S. diplomats and a team of Iraqi negotiators hand-picked by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Failure to seal the pact or renew the U.N. mandate would mean U.S. operations would have to be halted. The draft agreement calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, and allows Iraq to prosecute them for crimes committed while "off duty". Dabbagh told Reuters the amended pact would prevent the United States from using Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Iraq's neighbors, like a strike on a Syrian border village U.S. forces launched on Sunday, which Damascus says killed eight people. The United States and Iraq have already agreed a separate security framework agreement which says Washington would not use Iraqi territory to strike neighboring states. Dabbagh said the amendment would introduce that ban into the pact, making it clearer and "more binding". "If we sign the pact with the United States and then it hits any neighboring country using Iraqi territory, Iraq will no longer be bound by the agreement," Dabbagh said. Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria, both at odds with Washington, oppose the pact because they fear U.S. forces will operate against them. That has made it difficult for some Iraqi politicians to support it. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 Look for a last second Souk-style NO DEAL givem me many more! Then a signing. |
| Posted by: .5MT 2008-10-30 18:31 |
| #6 All part of the dance, folks. Yep, the deal is done. Just a little posturing and an attempt to get some free sprinkles on top. The media, of couse, will spin it as a breakdown/quagmire/catastrophe. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-10-30 16:05 |
| #5 [With fingers crossed] I, state your name, promise not to attack Iraq's neighbors from Iraq. Now, please pass the feather pen and hummus. |
| Posted by: Omeregum Johnson4532 2008-10-30 12:26 |
| #4 All part of the dance, folks. Notice how calm Bush and Rice are. They understand Arab culture and the need for Iraqi pols to win 'concessions' from us. We still have some of the song and dance left to do but in the end we'll have an agreement. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-10-30 08:15 |
| #3 Neighbors being Syria and Iran. And the one of significance to this agreement is Iran. Not sure if it means Iraqi government is 'owned' by Iran as much as that they are afraid of what would happen if they were to be dragged into another war with Iran. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-10-30 07:57 |
| #2 Reboot. |
| Posted by: Oscar Clomosing5032 2008-10-30 05:20 |
| #1 Prepare for whining from the Iraqi government about how the US shoved the agreement down their throats sans the part about not attacking Iraq's neighbors. |
| Posted by: gorb 2008-10-30 02:34 |