Iraq wants to remove any possibility that US troops could remain after 2011 from a proposed security agreement now under negotiation, a Shiite lawmaker close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on Thursday.
The draft would have US soldiers leave Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011, unless the government were to ask them to stay to help with training or other missions. But Ali al-Adeeb, a member of the prime minister’s inner circle, said the government wanted that possibility removed.
“The Iraqi side wants to remove any mention of a possible extension of US troops, fearing that the existing clause might be subjected to misinterpretation or could bear different interpretation because Multinational Forces might demand for extension depending on their evaluation of the security forces or the incomplete readiness of the Iraqi forces,” Ali al-Adeeb told reporters.
Hopes of the administration of US President George W. Bush to secure the deal while in office were fading with the new Iraqi demands.
“The window for any kind of discussions, negotiations is rapidly coming to a close,” US State Department spokesman Robert Wood said on Thursday, alluding to Jan. 20, when a new US president takes over.
Wood said officials continued to go over the Iraqi proposal for changes, but he repeated the administration’s insistence that the existing draft was a “good text.”
Administration officials were troubled by the proposed Iraqi amendments to a text US negotiators had thought was complete. And even if those issues were resolved, there was still no guarantee that the Iraqi parliament would approve the so-called Status of Forces Agreement. Failure to bridge the gaps would leave two options: Extend the UN mandate after its current Dec. 31 expiration or suspend all US operations in Iraq.
US officials have urged the Iraqis to consider what could happen if the US were to suspend military operations.
Violence has been down sharply after the Sunni revolt against al-Qaeda and the routing of Shiite militias in Baghdad and southern Iraq last spring. But the US military has also been providing considerable help to Iraqi ministries in infrastructure and quality of life projects that would have to stop.
The White House, State Department and Pentagon all refused to discuss possible alternatives to securing a deal on Thursday, saying they were still reviewing Iraq’s proposed amendments received on Wednesday.
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done
RSS