Earlier today the Iraqi cabinet voted to approve a security agreement with the U.S. that will allow American forces to remain in Iraq beyond the expiration of the UN mandate which is the legal basis for their presence.
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi cabinet voted overwhelmingly Sunday to approve the security agreement that sets the conditions for the Americans' continued presence in Iraq from Jan. 1 until the end of 2011.
All but one of the 28 cabinet ministers who attended the two-and-a-half-hour session voted for the agreement and sent it to Parliament for consideration, a huge relief to the United States, which had been in intense negotiations with the Iraqis for nearly a year.
The United Nations Security Council resolution that allows U.S. troops to operate in Iraq expires Dec. 31, and, without an extension of the resolution or a separate agreement with the Iraqis like that approved by the cabinet on Sunday, forces of the U.S.-led coalition would have no legal mandate to operate.
“This is the best available alternative,” the Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said shortly after the vote. “We have always said this is not a perfect solution for the Iraqi side and it is not a perfect solution for the American side. But it is a procedure which was forced by circumstances and necessity.
“This is the time after the progress in the security situation to transfer the security file to the Iraqi side, step by step.”
The next step is approval of the agreement by the Iraqi parliament. A vote by Parliament is expected on November 24th.
"We hope to take a vote on the agreement on November 24," parliament's deputy speaker Khalid al-Attiya told AFP.
The Iraqi cabinet decided earlier Sunday to approve a draft of the agreement, which will replace a UN mandate that expires at the end of this year.
The agreement would see US troops withdraw from all Iraqi cities and towns by the end of June 2009 and from the country as a whole by the end of 2011.
Parliament's endorsement of the pact is crucial before it can be signed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and US President George W. Bush.
Radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr had hoped to influence the Iraqi cabinet vote by threatening attacks on U.S. troops if the agreement is passed.
BAGHDAD — Radical Shiite leader Moqtada al-Sadr threatened Friday to resume attacks on U.S. forces if they remain in Iraq, as envisioned in a draft security agreement that would allow them to stay until the end of 2011.
Al-Sadr's statement appeared aimed at upping the ante before a cabinet meeting Sunday at which ministers are expected to decide whether to support the accord.
The cleric's Mahdi Army militia battled U.S. forces off and on from 2004 until last spring, when fierce clashes erupted in the southern city of Basra and in the Baghdad district of Sadr City. Since then, his fighters have largely observed a cease-fire, and al-Sadr has said he wants to turn most of his militia into a religious and social movement.
He has kept a low profile in recent months and is believed to be in Iran, according to U.S. military officials.
Although it was not made clear by the the article quoted above, al Sadr's Mahdi Army got its clocks cleaned by the Iraqi Army in Basra and in Baghdad. This may have played into al Sadr's decision to turn his militia into a social movement.
Consensus has it that the Iraqi agreement with the U.S. is not perfect, but it's good. Most importantly, it has the approval of Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Without his approval there is no deal.
Sistani is enormously influential among the majority Shiite population; in 2004, when he wanted to put pressure on the Americans to hold direct elections, he called upon his followers to march by the hundreds of thousands in a peaceful but powerful demonstration of force.
Imperfect though it may be, democracy is breaking out in Iraq.
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