BAGHDAD — After months of painstaking negotiations between Baghdad and Washington, the Iraqi Cabinet on Sunday approved a bilateral agreement allowing U.S. troops to remain in Iraq for three more years.
The accord still needs approval by Iraq’s parliament — lawmakers could vote as soon as Nov. 24 — and the presidential council. But the Cabinet vote indicated that most major Iraqi parties supported it. The Iraqi government spokesman portrayed the pact as closing the book on the occupation that began with the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.
“The total withdrawal will be completed by Dec. 31, 2011. This is not governed by circumstances on the ground,” the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told Iraqi reporters, pointedly rejecting the more conditional language that the U.S. government had earlier sought in the accord.
American officials have pointed out that there is nothing stopping the next Iraqi government from asking some U.S. troops to stay on. The Iraqi military is years away from being able to defend the country from external attack, according to both U.S. and Iraqi officials.
Still, there is no doubt that the accord, if passed by parliament, will sharply reduce the U.S. military’s power in Iraq. American soldiers will be required to seek warrants from Iraqi courts to execute arrests, and to hand over suspects to Iraqi authorities. U.S. troops will have to leave their combat outposts in Iraqi cities by mid-2009, withdrawing to bases.
The pact also gives Iraq the right to try U.S. soldiers and defense contractors in the case of serious crimes committed off-duty and off-base.
The U.S. government has lobbied hard for the status-of-forces agreement, which would replace a United Nations mandate authorizing the U.S. presence that expires on Dec. 31. Without some legal umbrella, the 150,000 U.S. forces would have to end their operations in Iraq in a few weeks’ time, military officials said.
“We welcome the Cabinet’s approval of the agreement today,” a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said. “This is an important and positive step.”
The Iraqi spokesman noted his government could cancel the agreement if its own forces became capable of controlling security at an earlier point.
“That matches the vision of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama,” Dabbagh said, referring to the Democrat’s plan to withdraw American combat troops within 16 months. “The Iraqi side would not mind (withdrawal) when the readiness of its forces is achieved.”
Obama, who takes office in January, has said he would pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of moving into the White House — or May 2010.
The sole vote of dissent in the Cabinet came from Minister of Women’s Affairs Nawal al-Samaraie, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni Arab party.
She said she voted against the pact because she preferred that it be put to a nationwide referendum. She also wanted the U.S. military to free Sunni security detainees not charged with specific crimes, rather than hand them to Iraqi authorities.
And in addition to parliamentary approval, the agreement needs the go-ahead from Iraq’s presidential council. The Sunni representative on that council, Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi, has called for a national referendum on the pact.
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