The official said a compromise had been worked out on the contentious issue of whether to provide US troops immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law, but he did not give details. In Washington, the senior military official said the draft agreement reflects the US position that the US must retain exclusive legal jurisdiction over its troops in Iraq.
While Iraqi negotiators signed off on the draft, another official close to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the country’s political leaders objected to parts of the text, including the immunity provision.
“There are different points of view,” he said. “We have given ours. The other side has given theirs.”
He would not elaborate and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
A third senior Iraqi official said al-Maliki himself had gone through the text personally and made notes with objections to some undisclosed points. He also spoke on condition of anonymity.
The security deal is to govern the status of the more than 140,000-strong US military force after the UN Security Council mandate for its mission expires at the end of this year.
The Muslim Shiite-led government has been pressing for some sort of time line for the departure of US troops, saying that is essential to win legislators’ approval.
The decision to refer the agreement to parliament followed demands by the country’s most powerful Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, that any formula to keep US troops on Iraqi soil even for a limited period must have broad political support.
Bush long had refused to accept any timetable for bringing US troops home. Last month, however, he and al-Maliki agreed to set a “general time horizon” for ending the US mission.
Bush’s shift to a broad timeline was seen as a move to speed agreement on the security pact.
Talks were supposed to have been finished by the end of last month but differences over immunity and other issues dragged out the process.
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