Moby
10-29-2008, 04:04 PM
That's not good. Now that Bush gave into Bin Laden's demands and removed our troops from Saudi Arabia we need a launch point. Iraq was supposed to be it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081029/wl_nm/us_iraq_4
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Amendments sought by Iraq to a security pact with the United States would ban U.S. forces from striking neighboring countries from Iraqi territory, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Wednesday.
U.S. negotiators began on Wednesday to scrutinize the changes demanded by Iraq to the stalled security pact which sets the conditions under which American troops could operate in the country after this year.
The Iraqi cabinet proposed the changes on Tuesday and sent them straight to the Americans.
The United States was reviewing the amendments, President George W. Bush said, seated next to Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, after they met at the White House.
"I informed the president we received amendments today from the government, we're analyzing those amendments, we obviously want to be helpful and constructive without undermining basic principles," Bush said.
He was "hopeful and confident" the agreement would be passed.
Both sides were working hard to reach an agreement before the existing U.N. Security Council mandate for the roughly 150,000-strong U.S. force expires at the end of the year, U.S. military spokesman Brigadier-General David Perkins said.
"Nobody wants to turn the clock back. Nobody wants to lose the security that has been hard fought and gained."
Iraq irked Washington by announcing last week that it wanted changes to the pact, which was worked out by U.S. diplomats and Iraqi negotiators hand-picked by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
'OFF DUTY'
Failure to seal the pact or renew the U.N. mandate would mean U.S. operations would have to be halted. The draft agreement calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, and allows Iraq to prosecute them for crimes committed while "off duty."
Dabbagh told Reuters Iraq considers the term "off duty" vague. One of Iraq's proposed amendments would define it as any time the troops were acting outside of a joint operation authorized by Iraq, he said.
He also said the amended pact would prevent the United States from using Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Iraq's neighbors, like a strike on a Syrian border village U.S. forces launched on Sunday, which Damascus says killed eight people.
The United States and Iraq have already agreed a separate security framework agreement which says Washington would not use Iraqi territory to strike neighboring states. Dabbagh said the amendment would introduce that ban into the pact, making it clearer and "more binding."
"If we sign the pact with the United States and then it hits any neighboring country using Iraqi territory, Iraq will no longer be bound by the agreement," Dabbagh said.
Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria, both at odds with Washington, oppose the pact because they fear U.S. forces will operate against them. That has made it difficult for some Iraqi politicians to support it.
U.S. officials say they do not want to renegotiate the pact's substance but might consider adjustments to its wording. Once a deal is reached, it must be backed by Iraq's parliament.
If the pact is not ready by the end of the year, Iraq has said it would seek an extension of the U.N. Security Council mandate. Washington says it would have to halt everything from security patrols and reconstruction projects to basic services like air traffic control if the mandate expires without a deal.
Violence in Iraq has fallen to four-year lows, giving the government in Baghdad increasing confidence in its negotiations with Washington. U.S. forces handed over control of the last province south of Baghdad to Iraqi forces on Wednesday.
Wasit province along the Iranian border was the 13th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by U.S. forces to Iraqi control. Only the capital Baghdad and four volatile northern provinces are still under U.S. command.
(Additional reporting by Jaafar al-Taie in Kut and Missy Ryan, Khalid al-Ansary and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Editing by Giles Elgood)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081029/wl_nm/us_iraq_4
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Amendments sought by Iraq to a security pact with the United States would ban U.S. forces from striking neighboring countries from Iraqi territory, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Wednesday.
U.S. negotiators began on Wednesday to scrutinize the changes demanded by Iraq to the stalled security pact which sets the conditions under which American troops could operate in the country after this year.
The Iraqi cabinet proposed the changes on Tuesday and sent them straight to the Americans.
The United States was reviewing the amendments, President George W. Bush said, seated next to Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, after they met at the White House.
"I informed the president we received amendments today from the government, we're analyzing those amendments, we obviously want to be helpful and constructive without undermining basic principles," Bush said.
He was "hopeful and confident" the agreement would be passed.
Both sides were working hard to reach an agreement before the existing U.N. Security Council mandate for the roughly 150,000-strong U.S. force expires at the end of the year, U.S. military spokesman Brigadier-General David Perkins said.
"Nobody wants to turn the clock back. Nobody wants to lose the security that has been hard fought and gained."
Iraq irked Washington by announcing last week that it wanted changes to the pact, which was worked out by U.S. diplomats and Iraqi negotiators hand-picked by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
'OFF DUTY'
Failure to seal the pact or renew the U.N. mandate would mean U.S. operations would have to be halted. The draft agreement calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011, and allows Iraq to prosecute them for crimes committed while "off duty."
Dabbagh told Reuters Iraq considers the term "off duty" vague. One of Iraq's proposed amendments would define it as any time the troops were acting outside of a joint operation authorized by Iraq, he said.
He also said the amended pact would prevent the United States from using Iraqi territory to launch attacks on Iraq's neighbors, like a strike on a Syrian border village U.S. forces launched on Sunday, which Damascus says killed eight people.
The United States and Iraq have already agreed a separate security framework agreement which says Washington would not use Iraqi territory to strike neighboring states. Dabbagh said the amendment would introduce that ban into the pact, making it clearer and "more binding."
"If we sign the pact with the United States and then it hits any neighboring country using Iraqi territory, Iraq will no longer be bound by the agreement," Dabbagh said.
Iraq's neighbors Iran and Syria, both at odds with Washington, oppose the pact because they fear U.S. forces will operate against them. That has made it difficult for some Iraqi politicians to support it.
U.S. officials say they do not want to renegotiate the pact's substance but might consider adjustments to its wording. Once a deal is reached, it must be backed by Iraq's parliament.
If the pact is not ready by the end of the year, Iraq has said it would seek an extension of the U.N. Security Council mandate. Washington says it would have to halt everything from security patrols and reconstruction projects to basic services like air traffic control if the mandate expires without a deal.
Violence in Iraq has fallen to four-year lows, giving the government in Baghdad increasing confidence in its negotiations with Washington. U.S. forces handed over control of the last province south of Baghdad to Iraqi forces on Wednesday.
Wasit province along the Iranian border was the 13th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by U.S. forces to Iraqi control. Only the capital Baghdad and four volatile northern provinces are still under U.S. command.
(Additional reporting by Jaafar al-Taie in Kut and Missy Ryan, Khalid al-Ansary and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Editing by Giles Elgood)