WORLD> Middle East
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WORLD> Middle East
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Iraq wants all troops gone by end of 2011
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-02 18:47 BAGHDAD -- Iraq wants to eliminate any chance that US forces will stay there after 2011 under a proposed security pact and to expand Iraqi legal jurisdiction over US troops until then, a close ally of the prime minister said Thursday.
Those demands, which were presented to US officials this week, could derail the deal, delivering a diplomatic blow to Washington in the final weeks of the Bush administration. The current draft, hammered out in months of tortuous negotiations, would have US soldiers leave Iraq by December 31, 2011, unless the two governments agreed to an extension for training and supporting Iraqi security forces. But Ali al-Adeeb, a member of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's inner circle, said the government wants that possibility removed by language adding finality to the end of 2011 date. "The Iraqi side wants to remove any mention of a possible extension of US troops, fearing that the existing clause might be subject to misinterpretation or could bear different interpretation," he told The Associated Press. Otherwise, he said the US might demand an extension "depending on their evaluation" of the security situation and the state of readiness within Iraq's army and police. US officials have privately suggested that 2012 is too early for Iraqi forces to be truly ready to maintain order. The draft also gives Iraqi courts limited jurisdiction over US troops accused of major crimes committed off post and off duty. Al-Adeeb said the Iraqis want a joint US-Iraqi committee to decide whether US soldiers accused of such crimes were really on authorized missions. Planning Minister Ali Baban, a Sunni, said the Iraqis want all US soldiers and contractors under Iraqi jurisdiction unless they are carrying out joint military operations, a subtle but significant change to the draft that US authorities may find unacceptable. Iraqi officials have said those changes must be made in the draft agreement before it can be approved by parliament in time for a December 31 deadline when the U.N. mandate under which coalition forces here operates expires. Without an agreement or a new UN mandate, the US military would have to suspend all operations in Iraq. "We are waiting for a response from the US negotiators on how much they can accommodate," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told CNN. "I think both sides here have reached the moment of truth. The time window is closing, and a decision has to be made as soon as possible." But the Bush administration's hope to secure the deal while in office was fading with the new Iraqi demands, despite White House assurances that an agreement was still possible. US officials in Washington refused to discuss possible alternatives to securing a deal, saying they are still reviewing Iraq's proposed amendments which were received on Wednesday. But officials bristled at suggestions the negotiations could be reopened and said the US was not yet considering asking the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate. "Once we have something to say on it, we will," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters in Washington. "But for the moment, we're just taking our time in reviewing it to make sure that we've got a good sense of what it is the Iraqis have put forward." |
