Moby
10-22-2008, 12:46 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081021/ts_nm/us_iraq_pact_cabinet
(Reuters) – Iraq's cabinet decided on Tuesday to seek changes to a draft pact agreed with Washington to allow U.S. forces to stay in Iraq until 2011, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
"The cabinet has agreed that necessary amendments to the pact could make it nationally accepted," Dabbagh told Reuters.
"The cabinet will continue its meetings (in coming days), in which ministers will give their opinions and consult and provide the amendments suggested. Then this will be given to the American negotiating team."
The announcement was an apparent reversal for Baghdad, which had previously described the draft as a final text. It was agreed last week after months of painstaking negotiations.
Political leaders from most parties withheld their support for the text at a meeting on Sunday, raising doubts that it could pass through parliament without changes.
The draft would require U.S. troops to leave Iraq after 2011 unless Baghdad asks them to stay, and also lets Iraqi courts try American service members accused of serious crimes while off duty. But some Iraqi politicians have expressed concern over details such as the mechanism for holding trials.
(Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
(Reuters) – Iraq's cabinet decided on Tuesday to seek changes to a draft pact agreed with Washington to allow U.S. forces to stay in Iraq until 2011, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
"The cabinet has agreed that necessary amendments to the pact could make it nationally accepted," Dabbagh told Reuters.
"The cabinet will continue its meetings (in coming days), in which ministers will give their opinions and consult and provide the amendments suggested. Then this will be given to the American negotiating team."
The announcement was an apparent reversal for Baghdad, which had previously described the draft as a final text. It was agreed last week after months of painstaking negotiations.
Political leaders from most parties withheld their support for the text at a meeting on Sunday, raising doubts that it could pass through parliament without changes.
The draft would require U.S. troops to leave Iraq after 2011 unless Baghdad asks them to stay, and also lets Iraqi courts try American service members accused of serious crimes while off duty. But some Iraqi politicians have expressed concern over details such as the mechanism for holding trials.
(Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Sami Aboudi)