UPDATED ON:
Thursday, November 27, 2008
21:58 Mecca time, 18:58 GMT
News Middle East
Iraq parliament approves US pact

The pact will govern some 150,000 US soldiers stationed in 400 bases across Iraq [AFP]

Iraq's parliament has approved a security pact that allows US troops to stay in Iraq for three more years.

The pact was approved by 144 members of the 198 who attended the session of the 275-member assembly, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the parliament speaker, said on Thursday.

Under the deal, US forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 and leave the entire country by January 1, 2012.

The vote in favour of the pact was backed by the ruling coalition's Shia and Kurdish blocs, as well as the largest Sunni Arab bloc which had demanded concessions for supporting the deal.

The 18-page agreement takes effect when the UN mandate now governing the troops expires on December 31.

Ending the occupation

It will end the 2003 invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein, then the Iraqi president, and plunged the country into chaos.

Voices
 Anbar says 'yes' to security pact
The agreement had already been approved by the cabinet a week ago.

The measure would govern some 150,000 US troops stationed in over 400 bases currently under a UN mandate, giving the Iraqi government veto power over virtually all of their operations.

The agreement is similar to so-called Status of Forces Agreements (Sofa) concluded with other US allies, but marks a major turning point in the relations between the two countries.
  
It is effectively a coming-of-age for the Iraqi government, which drove a hard bargain with Washington, securing a number of concessions - including a hard timeline for withdrawal - over more than 11 months of tough negotiations.

Possible dispute

Iraq has also won the right to search US military cargo and the right to try US soldiers for crimes committed while they are off  their bases and off-duty.

The agreement also requires that US troops obtain Iraqi permission for all military operations and that they hand over the files of all detainees in US custody to the Iraqi authorities, who will decide their fate.

The pact also forbids US troops from using Iraq as a launch-pad or transit point for attacking another country, which may reassure Syria and Iran, according to the official Arabic version of the  pact, translated by AFP.

"That is where Prime Minister [Nuri] al-Maliki won," Hoda Abdel Hamid, Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent, said.

"He got more of what the Iraqis wanted."

But the English version has not been made public, and US officials in Washington said there may be a dispute between the two sides over the interpretation of certain parts of the agreement.

"It's all in the wording, but it's also in the translation," Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst.

"In so many ways we have just moved from international status to a bilateral status where America with 150,000 soldiers and 400 bases will probably be able to dictate the interpretation of this agreement."

Political concessions

The vote came after a flurry of last-minute negotiations in which the main Sunni parties secured a package of political reforms from the government and a commitment to hold a referendum on the pact in the middle of next year.

Should the Iraqi government decide to cancel the pact after the referendum it would have to give Washington one year's notice, meaning that troops would be allowed to remain in the country only until the middle of 2010.

"The Kurds also got guarantees that Prime Minister [Nuri] al-Maliki will respect the federal system of the country," Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel Hamid reported.

"They have been at odds lately with Baghdad over the fact that they thought the prime minister was centralising a bit too much governance in Iraq, and that really went against the constitution."

The pact was made possible in part by dramatic improvements in security over the past year, with US and Iraqi forces largely containing the violence and the chaos that erupted in the wake of  the 2003 US-led invasion and Saddam's ouster.

But the accord has drawn fire from certain quarters, including followers of Moqtada al-Sadr, the Iraqi Shia leader, who reject any agreement with the US and who protested against the accord in Baghdad on Friday.

As the voting on the pact began several Sadrist MPs pounded tables in a bid to hinder the vote, chanting "Yes, yes to Iraq ... No, no, to the occupation," but the 30-member bloc failed to defeat the agreement.

 Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
 
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Feedback Number of comments : 19
 
Adamu
Nigeria
27/11/2008
Iraq-US "pact"
What a tragedy! This is the second humiliation that the Arabs would have to contend with after the creation of the "terror manufacturing industry" called Isreal. Make no mistake, even after 2012 the Americans and their hypocratical allies in Iraq will find another excuse to extend the illegal "pact".

john kall
Iraq
27/11/2008
us/iraqi pact
Realised one thing from the arab reaction to the pact. arabs are loosers by birth.only way they can be happy is if they live under a dictactor.so leave them alone in the future.

BAB
United States
27/11/2008
Let's hope this is not the Arabian story of the camel being invited inside the tent and ends up taking over the tent. It is also amusing that the agrrement passed on the American Thanksgiving Day, and we all know what happened to the Indian natives after that.

Brian
United States
27/11/2008
US Iraqi pact
Bush's invasion of Iraq was illegal and horrible for human rights but at least now it will end in a legal fashion. al-Sadr wants the pact to fail so he has a reason to complain and someone to shoot at. If the 'evil' Americans leave, he will lose a lot of legitimacy.

Jannat
Kyrgyzstan
27/11/2008
Tooba
what "reason" will they look for in the "next" country? just wondering...

Kurt
Iraq
27/11/2008
yes, America should go
Yes America should go, evidently all the schools, hospitals, roads, and aid America has spent on Iraq is not ever mentioned. America is also the biggest aid doner to the Palestinians as well, but everyone is blinded by their hate. Critical thinking is a trait that seems to be in short supply

Brian
United States
28/11/2008
Iraq pact
If you haven't been to Iraq since the surge (especially the American video-game generation), you have no idea how much things have improved in Iraq over the last two years. Dramatic changes, you just have to expand your horizons. It's good that we are leaving because the ISF can handle the vast majority of security operations anyway, and they have their own money for rebuilding. Now we can focus efforts on eliminating terrorists from the Afghan/Pakistani border.

Adam
Afghanistan
28/11/2008
What did you expect from the aggressor's Iraqi appointed government? What is the Iraqi government's reason to be? They are no different than the Saudis and their likes in Jordan, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, UEA, etc…

Ben
Finland
28/11/2008
Pact
Al Sadr was living an underground life of fear in the poorest slums of the country until the US removed Saddam. Perfect example of the useless ungrateful citizens who now will enjoy real freedoms under their own elected government.

anyone
Afghanistan
28/11/2008
anywhere from here
American-created rubber stamp parliament approves their master invasion for three more years? Sounds like more economic hurdle for US to face. If Obama won't able to bring back the troops then this would be a slap on his face.

prairiedog
United States
27/11/2008
Iraq Parliament approves US pact
Iraq, you are the new Palestine. Once the cancer of the American Military is in your country, it will be there forever. Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. America invaded your country to steal your oil, it killed a million of your citizens,poisoned your land with depleted uranium, your country will suffer for ten thousand years.

joe
Afghanistan
27/11/2008
sofa
all these guys who voted in favour of this sofa agreement are sellouts,not realising they have given the americans evrything,stealing of iraqi oil,and the country, shame on you 144 members who voted for this

MJP BRADLEY
United States
27/11/2008
IRAQ
GET OUT NOW....BUSH was wrong in going in. We can not afford the war 3 more years.. Al Quade does not need to attack us, we are ruining our economy with this and Afghan wars.

robert mackay
Afghanistan
27/11/2008
iraqi parliament approves pact
the ink hasn't dried yet and the americans are already moving to violate the terms. rjm

Sam
Afghanistan
28/11/2008
Iraq/US pact
This is ridiculous! Why would Iraqis make the deal? Would you make a deal with a criminal? Americans are criminal barbarians who invaded, stole and destroyed a country, killed people, raped women and men! And now they want the pact to make their criminal acts legal...

motown67
United States
28/11/2008
Winners And Losers
Some winners and losers from this vote. First the Sadrists show once again that they are on the outside looking in. They stood against the agreement, but never had the votes to stop it. Not only that, they’re running on being nationalists and anti-American, but it's Prime Minister Maliki that has usurped that from them. Sunnis, they agreed to vote on the deal for a resolution on reconciliation and a referendum on the SOFA. The Kurds and Shias still run the government and don't care about reconciliation.

kymm
Canada
28/11/2008
US-Iraq "Pact"
I am still trying to understand how a deal between "the occupied" and "the occupier" works. Sounds like coercion to me.

Jerry
Iraq
28/11/2008
This is a major step in us leaving here in Iraq. As much as people complain about the US being here and the invasion and all that, it's a good step towards allowing the Iraqis to govern their own nation. People may say it's a puppet government doing the US governments bidding, but it's a complete fallacy. If they felt so bad about the Iraqis, where were they when Sadaam was in power?

Jummai
United States
29/11/2008
Iraq/US Pact
Where are the so call Iraqis that were cheering the US troop in 2003 as they embark in Iraq? Better yet, where are the rest of the middle East Countries that blessed the invassion. Was Saddam worth it? #death/injured= Saddam? Not to mention the monitory damage. So don't blame US now. You open the door to get rid of the smell instead you got the gush of sewer. You should have handle Saddam on your own.

 
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