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| Iraq |
| No deal yet in Iraq parliament on U.S. troop pact |
| 2008-11-26 |
| Iraq's parliament on Wednesday delayed a vote on a landmark pact setting a deadline for U.S. troops to leave, after agreeing to Sunni Arab demands to make it dependent on a referendum but rejecting other conditions. The deal paves the way for U.S. troops to withdraw by the end of 2011, bringing closer to an end the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that ousted former dictator Saddam Hussein only to usher in years of sectarian bloodshed. Once-dominant minority Sunnis are concerned their departure may dilute their influence in the Shi'ite-led country. They have proposed several political reforms they want adopted before they approve the pact. The vote has been postponed to Thursday. The Iraqi National Dialogue, one of two Sunni political blocs whose blessing for the pact is seen as key to achieving a broad consensus, said it had demanded reforms that would defang efforts to find and try members of Saddam's former Baath party. "We refused the Iraqi National Dialogue's two requests," said Jaber Khalifa, a senior member of the ruling Shi'ite coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance. Iraq's Shi'ite-led government and its Kurdish partners, who together hold most of Iraq's 275 parliamentary seats, had already agreed in principle to Sunni demands for a referendum on the security deal in mid-2009. The pact has been approved by the cabinet and signed with Washington. Maliki was probably popular enough after presiding over a sharp drop in violence to ensure approval of the U.S. troop deal in a referendum, said political analyst Kadhim al-Miqdad. |
| Posted by:tipper |