Thread: Iraqi cabinet expected to approve US military pact

Iraqi cabinet expected to approve US military pact


BAGHDAD - Iraq's cabinet met Sunday and was expected to approve a wide-ranging and controversial military pact that includes a timetable for the withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011.

Baghdad and Washington have been scrambling for months to reach an agreement that will govern the status of more than 150,000 US soldiers stationed in over 400 bases across the country after their UN mandate expires on December 31.

The cabinet meeting began at around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) and included all 39 Iraqi ministers, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. The meeting was expected to last several hours.

Iraq's lead negotiator Muwafaq al-Rubaie told AFP on Friday he expected the cabinet to approve the pact.

"I honestly believe we have reached now a very good text," Rubaie, who also serves as National Security Adviser, told AFP. "And this text will secure the complete, full, irrevocable sovereignty of Iraq."

"I believe, I hope, that the council of ministers will pass the new text Sunday and (then) it will be passed on to the parliament."

The White House, too, was upbeat Friday, describing the text of the accord as a "good agreement" that suits both countries.

The draft agreement includes 31 articles and calls for US troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by June 2009 and from the entire country by the end of 2011.

But the pact has drawn fire from hardline nationalists, especially the anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have called for mass demonstrations to oppose any agreement with the US "occupier."

Iraq has seen dramatic improvements in security over the past year as US and Iraqi forces have allied with local tribal militias to flush insurgents and militias out of vast swathes of the country that were once ungovernable.

The reduction in violence has also been partly attributed to an order by Sadr at the end of August 2007 to his thousands-strong Mahdi Army militia to observe a ceasefire.

But on Friday Sadr announced the creation of a new militia -- the Brigades of the Promised Day Brigades -- to fight the Americans and demanded that "the occupier leaves our beloved Iraq without any bases and without any accord."

The objections of the firebrand cleric, who is believed to be living in Iran, will have little impact on Sunday's decision, given that his party has no ministers and his loyalists only hold 28 seats in Iraq's 275-seat parliament.

If two-thirds of the cabinet approve the deal it will be sent to parliament, where it would have to be approved by a majority before Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would sign the agreement with US President George W. Bush.