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Al Sadr warns Iraq against signing US troop pact
Baghdad: Iraq’s radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Al Sadr on Thursday called on the government not to sign an accord being negotiated with Washington that will govern the presence of US troops from next year.
The security agreement was to have been sealed in principle by yesterday to take over from a UN mandate which expires this December, but Washington has said that date was unlikely to be met.
A US embassy official confirmed to AFP that the negotiations were ongoing, describing them as “constructive.”
“I call on the Iraqi government not to sign the accord with the United States and I affirm that I am ready to support the government publicly and politically if it does not sign,” Al Sadr said in a statement.
The influential Shiite leader called on “men of faith and on the clergy to express legally their opinion against the signature of any agreement between the government and the occupier, even if it is a friendly accord or one concerning another subject.”
Al Sadr, who strongly opposes the American troop presence which he sees as an occupying force, called on Iraqis “to be united to stand up against this agreement by political, peaceful and public means.”
Earlier this week, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the agreement might not be reached by the July 31 target. “I don’t necessarily think we’ll meet that date in particular; could be a few days or a couple of weeks past that.”
The Mahdi Army, the armed wing of Al Sadr’s movement, clashed in April and May with US and Iraqi troops in the Shiite bastion of Sadr City in Baghdad, until a truce was signed on May 10.
The United States has about 142,500 troops stationed in Iraq where Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki this month shook the White House by saying he was in favour of setting a date for the withdrawal of US combat troops. US President George W. Bush has repeatedly refused to give a time-table for the overall withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.
But Iraqi leaders, including Al Maliki, are demanding such a timetable to be included as part of a security deal now being negotiated by the two countries for the future presence of US forces in Iraq.
A US embassy official in Baghdad told AFP earlier in July that the originally envisaged security pact called Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) has now been “suspended”.
“The SOFA as we had in Japan or Germany has been suspended or put aside but not thrown away.”
He said the two sides were negotiating a “security protocol or operational protocol” that contains the key contents of the SOFA but would be only for a “certain period of time.”
Meanwhile in Washington, US President George W. Bush yesterday held out the prospect of further troop withdrawals from Iraq as he hailed security gains there and cut the length of combat tours for US forces in the country.
Bush, in an appearance at the White House, said violence in Iraq had fallen to its lowest point since the spring of 2004 and that progress on the ground was showing a “degree of durability.”
“We are now in our third consecutive month with reduced violence levels holding steady,” Bush said.
The number of US soldiers killed in combat in Iraq has dropped sharply in July and the monthly total is likely to be the lowest since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.
Five US soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq this month compared to 66 in the same month last year, according to the independent website www.icasualties.org, which keeps records of US military losses in the conflict.
Bush said Gen David Petraeus, the top commander of US forces in Iraq, later this year would present him with recommendations on future troop levels “including further reductions in our combat forces as conditions permit.”
He said that as of yesterday, US troops deployed to Iraq in the future would serve shorter combat tours, 12 months instead of 15 months, as conditions improve in the war zone.
Officers reinstated
An Iraqi government report shows 123 former intelligence and security officers have been quietly reinstated into their jobs since a law in February paved the way for thousands of Saddam Hussain-era officials to return to government jobs.
A senior Iraqi official has shown The Associated Press a copy of the report, which indicates that the group includes 71 former members of the military intelligence service and 23 from Saddam’s Fedayeen, a paramilitary force personally loyal to the late president.
The report, obtained yesterday, was prepared for Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.
Source: Gulfnews
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