Iraq

Cabinet approves US military pact

Article published on the 2008-11-16 Latest update 2008-11-16 14:21 TU

US troops at a re-enlistment ceremony in a camp north of Baghdad
(Photo: Reuters)

Iraq's cabinet on Sunday approved the controversial military agreement with the US, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa). The deal commits US troops to leave Iraqi cities by June next year and to quit the whole country by 2011. It will now go for approval by the country's parliament. Radical Shia-Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr remains opposed to any agreement with the American "occupier".

The cabinet approved the agreement with 28 of the 38 ministers voting for it.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was among those backing the deal, despite his earlier opposition to some proposals on the grounds that they impinged on Iraqi sovereignty.

Government spokesperson Ali al-Dabbagh said that most parties in the government backed the deal because it is "the best possible" and will  "end the military presence and guarantee the complete withdrawal of the troops".

The White House, which submitted an amended version of the pact on 5 November, on Friday declared it a "good agreement".

But Sadr remains opposed to the deal and has called for mass demonstrations against it. Although his party has only 28 seats in the 275-seat parliament, he can mobilise thousands on the streets and has demanded that "the occupier leaves our beloved Iraq without any bases and without any accord".

On Friday Sadr announced the creation of a new militia, the Brigades of the Promised Day. The improvement is security over the past few months has been partly because of a ceasefire he declared in August, as well as US co-operation with tribal militias against Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

In neighbouring Jordan, anlayst Mohammad al-Nasri believes that the deal "is not going to change the balance of power within Iraq".

"The Americans in Iraq will have a veto power to any major security plan or any military plan posed by the Iraqis," he told RFI, adding that, despite the withdrawal, the US will keep five military bases in the country.

"The Americans are gaining a lot from this agreement," al-Masri says. "They are getting all of the concessions they need."

As the cabinet meeting began, a roadside bomb killed three people, two of them members of a Sunni-Muslim militia, and injured seven.