Iraq's Cabinet approves pact letting U.S. forces stay through 2011
The Status of Forces Agreement now heads to parliament. Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr has urged his followers to rise up against the plan.
Iraq's Cabinet today approved a controversial pact that allows U.S. forces to remain in the country through 2011 and passed it on to parliament, where it faces fierce opposition from some lawmakers who consider it a sellout to the Americans.
The approval had been anticipated after close aides to Prime Minister Nouri Maliki last week said he had dropped his resistance to the plan and would urge his Cabinet to ratify it. The move ended months of contentious negotiations between Iraq and the United States, but it put Maliki on a collision course with Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr, who has urged his followers to rise up against the pact, and with some Sunni lawmakers who have said the public should approve the pact in a referendum.
Together, lawmakers from the main Sunni bloc and the Sadr bloc don't have enough seats to derail the pact when it is voted on in the 275-seat parliament. No date has been set for that. But even if it were to pass in parliament, it would have to be ratified by the three-member presidency, which includes Sunni Vice President Tariq Hashimi. Hashimi has led the calls for a referendum and could veto the pact.
In an address on national TV today, government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said all 27 of the Cabinet members present at a meeting voted in favor of the plan, known as the Status of Forces Agreement. The Cabinet has 37 members, and Dabbagh did not say which of them was absent.
Sadr on Friday threatened to call his Mahdi Army militia back into action against U.S. forces if the agreement, which would replace a U.N. mandate that expires Dec. 31, took effect. He said American forces should leave and that any agreement permitting them to stay longer infringes on Iraqi sovereignty.
According to the latest draft of the plan, U.S. forces would have to pull out of Iraqi cities by the middle of 2009 and limit their activities to the "over watch" of Iraqi forces from bases on the edge of population centers. They would respond to Iraqi requests for assistance but would not have the power to unilaterally launch operations.
By the end of 2011, all American troops would be out of Iraq.
The plan also would permit Iraqis to prosecute U.S. soldiers in some cases involving serious crimes committed against Iraqis, and it would forbid the United States from using Iraq as a launching pad to conduct operations against other countries.
If the plan were not approved by the end of the year, it would leave U.S. forces with no legal standing to be in Iraq unless the United Nations mandate were extended.
Susman is a Times staff writer.
tina.susman@latimes.com
