US negotiators reviewing amendments to Iraq security pact
Published: Thursday, October 30, 2008
10:00GMT—6:00AM/EST
SECURITY – IRAQ – BARAZANI – AGREEMENT
Washington, 30 October (IranVNC)—Following talks with the Prime Minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan region, Massoud Barazani, in the White House yesterday, President George W. Bush said he was “hopeful and confident” that Washington and Baghdad would reach agreement on a security pact.
Barazani, who also met Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice yesterday, has expressed support for the security agreement, which sets the conditions for the presence of US troops in Iraq after their United Nations mandate expires at the end of this year.
But the agreement, which has been subject to months of intense negotiations, is back in the hands of US negotiators after Iraq’s Cabinet demanded changes to the pact.
“We’re analyzing those amendments, we obviously want to be helpful and constructive without undermining basic principles,” Bush said.
Iraqi government spokesperson, Ali al-Dabbagh, said yesterday that Baghdad wants to revise the wording covering the possible prosecution of US troops in Iraqi courts.
The agreement, which calls for US forces to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, allows Iraq to prosecute US soldiers for crimes they commit while “off duty”.
Al-Dabbagh told Reuters that Iraq considered the term “off duty” vague, and proposed that it be amended to mean any time US troops were acting outside of a joint operation authorized by Iraq.
He also said that the proposed amendments would prevent the U.S. from launching an attack on Iraq’s neighbors from inside Iraqi territory. Iran and Syria have both been at odds with the pact, fearing that US forces will operate against them.
This issue reemerged following a cross-border raid into Syria last Sunday that killed eight civilians and which Damascus has placed blame on the U.S.
Barazani met Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week in Tehran, and assured him that Baghdad would not allow any US attacks against Iran to be staged from Iraqi soil.
US military officials have repeatedly warned that failure to sign the agreement would derail security progress made so far in Iraq. The agreement still needs approval by Iraq’s Parliament.
“You pull one pillar out, you seriously degrade efforts of others,” US military spokesperson Brigadier-General David Perkins was quoted by AFP as saying.
Amid improving security conditions throughout Iraq, US forces yesterday handed over control of the southeastern Wasit Province to the Iraqi government.
Wasit, which has a 125-mile border with Iran, is the 13th of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over to Iraq.
US Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin, the number two US commander in Iraq, said that Wasit was once a route for “enemies to move weapons … to attack Iraqi and coalition forces”, AFP reports.
Sources: White House website, Rueters, Agence France-Presse
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