Iraq - US security agreement initial approval
Iraq-USA, Politics, 11/17/2008

The Iraqi cabinet yesterday approved a security agreement with the USA that calls for a full withdrawal of the American forces from the country by the end of 2011.

The cabinet's decision brings a final date for the departure of American troops a significant step closer after more than five and a half years of war.

The proposed pact must still be approved by Iraq's Parliament, in a vote scheduled to take place in a week. But leaders of some of the largest parliamentary blocs expressed confidence that with the backing of most Shiites and Kurds they had enough support to ensure its approval.

Twenty-seven of the 28 cabinet ministers who were present at the two and-a-half-hour session voted in favor of the pact. Nine ministers were absent. The nearly unanimous vote was a victory for the ruling party and its Kurdish partners.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe welcomed the Iraqi Cabinet's November 16 vote as another step forward for Iraq's fledgling democracy. "We remain hopeful and confident we'll soon have an agreement that serves both the people of Iraq and the United States well and sends a signal to the region and the world that both our governments are committed to a stable, secure and democratic Iraq."

The process affirmed the idea that these were two free, sovereign states that were dealing with one another and came to an agreement," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said November 17. "Two sovereign states that had to answer to their public. That was very clear from the Iraqi side; I think it's obvious for our side as well."

"If this does go forward, and you have the Iraqi parliament passing it, and it's approved by the presidency council, you will have had an agreement signed between the United States and a democratic Iraq," McCormack said. "That will change the Middle East forever, for the positive."

Since 2003, US-led coalition forces have operated in Iraq under a UN Security Council resolution that expires at the end of 2008. US and Iraqi officials seek to replace the UN mandate and continue security cooperation through a status of forces agreement — a pact authorizing the presence of US troops and outlining their activities in Iraq. US officials say that without the legal foundation offered by the accord, all coalition-led military operations would cease in Iraq.

American and Iraqi diplomats began negotiations in March, initially hoping to conclude the agreement by midsummer. Talks continued into the fall as negotiators on both sides redoubled efforts to craft a security arrangement that could be accepted by officials in Baghdad and Washington.

While violence has declined drastically in 2008, recent days have seen a spate of bombings in Baghdad, Baqubah and Hillah. These bombings have targeted Iraqi police officers, neighborhood guards in an Iraqi Sunni community and local residents, underlining what US officials have called Iraq's "fragile, but reversible" security gains and the continued need for security assistance as Iraq continues to build democratic governing institutions.

"In terms of US and coalition military presence, clearly there is going to be a need for that beyond the end of the year," Ambassador Crocker told reporters in a June 5 briefing on the negotiations. "The more Iraqis are able to do in terms of their own security, the less requirement there is for outside support. That's what Iraqis want, and that's what we want."

At the United Nations, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the negotiations have continued between the United States and Iraq on the transitioning relationship "with a goal of a strong and strategic relationship with Iraq, which respects both countries' sovereignty and serves both countries' interests."

Khalilzad reported to the UN Security Council that since June 2007, when an increase in troops began to bolster security across the country, civilian deaths due to violence have decreased by 80 percent. The number of overall attacks by insurgents has decreased by 86 percent.

And Iraqi security force deaths have fallen by 84 percent, Khalilzad said. In the same period, US military deaths in Iraq have declined by 87 percent, coalition military deaths in Iraq have fallen 88 percent and sectarian-related deaths have decreased by 95 percent, he said.

The proposed agreement, which took nearly a year to negotiate with the United States, not only sets a date for American troop withdrawal, but puts new restrictions on American combat operations in Iraq. The US side agreed to an Iraqi request that would permit Iraqi authorities to prosecute serious crimes committed by off-duty American personnel outside their bases — a key sticking point for US negotiators. A Washington Post report today said that the agree also disallows the US "cannot use Iraqi territory to attack Iraq's neighbors, including Syria and Iran."

Those hard dates reflect a significant concession by the departing Bush administration, which had been publicly averse to timetables.
Iraq also obtained a significant degree of jurisdiction in some cases over serious crimes committed by American soldiers who are off duty and not on bases. It also requires an American military pullback from urban areas by June 30.

Previous Stories:
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  Iraqi parliament fails to finish election law   (8/11/2008)
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