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Shiite bloc withholds its approval of US-Iraq pact

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-20 11:05

Many Iraqi lawmakers say privately they still need US troops because the Iraqi military and police alone are incapable of handling security nationwide despite the sharp drop in violence since last year.

Iraqi Army Special Forces search a house after receiving a tip on possible presence of weapons in the Al-Taliaa village. Iraq's top leaders were meeting late Sunday to review a controversial security pact with the US that will determine American troop deployments beyond this year. [Agencies]

But approval has been complicated by next year's provincial and national elections, as well as the narrow partisan interests and the sectarian and ethnic divisions that have defined Iraqi politics since the 2003 collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Iraqi politicians fear positions they take on the security pact will determine how they will fare at the ballot box, since many voters are anxious to see US troops leave. Iraqi control of their own country is a burning issue in a nation that once saw itself as the beacon of pan-Arab nationalism.

Furthermore, many Shiite politicians have close ties to neighboring Iran, where they lived in exile during Saddam's rule. Shiite-dominated Iran strongly opposes the agreement.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Washington's plan for a security deal with Iraq was futile because Iraqis "have announced their opposition" to the deal, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported from Tehran.

The pact with the US is expected to serve as a model for a separate agreement on the future of the 4,100 British troops in Iraq as well as the handful of other countries that remain in the coalition.

Al-Maliki said Sunday he would appoint a team soon to start discussions with Britain.

"It is the time to build the best relationships with the countries that stood with Iraq against dictatorship in order to build a modern state," al-Maliki said in a statement after meeting with British Defense Secretary John Hutton.

Despite security improvements, attacks continue, albeit at their lowest levels in four years.

Two bombs exploded Sunday near separate Iraqi police patrols in the Shiite-dominated southeast Baghdad neighborhood of Zafaraniya, killing two people and wounding a total of 17, police and hospital officials said.

The US military reported two dead and two wounded and blamed Shiite extremists.

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