Iraq’s Cabinet defied fiery opposition from Shiite hardliners yesterday to approve a wide-ranging military pact that includes a timetable for the withdrawal of all US troops by the end of 2011.
Baghdad and Washington have been scrambling for months to reach an agreement that would govern the status of more than 150,000 US soldiers stationed in some 400 bases across the country after their UN mandate expires on Dec. 31.
The Cabinet approved the agreement after a two-and-a-half hour meeting, with 27 ministers out of 38 voting for it, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
“There was a positive position taken on the part of the larger blocs and all the most important blocs,” Dabbagh told reporters after the vote.
“They all expressed a positive position because they consider it the best [agreement] possible, because it will manage and end the military presence and guarantee the complete withdrawal of the troops,” he said.
The measure will now need to be approved by a majority of parliament through a process that will take at least a week.
It would then be ratified by Iraq’s presidential council before Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would sign the deal with US President George W. Bush.
Iraq’s lead negotiator, Muwafaq al-Rubaie, said on Friday he believed the draft agreement was a “very good text” and expected it to be approved by parliament as well.
The White House, too, was upbeat on Friday, describing the text of the accord as a “good agreement” that suits both countries.
It took nearly 11 months of tense and detailed negotiations before both Baghdad and Washington were comfortable with the Status of Forces Agreement pact on the future of US forces in Iraq.
“At some stages we went through we said well, this couldn’t be done. It is very difficult, it is literally impossible to do. Other times we said well, okay, it’s better now, we have progressed,” Rubaie said.
The draft agreement includes 31 articles and calls for US troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by next June and from the entire country by the end of 2011.
But the pact has drawn fire from hardline nationalists, especially the anti-US cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have called for mass demonstrations to oppose any agreement with the US “occupier.”
Iraq has seen dramatic improvements in security over the past year as US and Iraqi forces have allied with local tribal militias to flush insurgents and militias out of vast swathes of the country that were once ungovernable.
The reduction in violence has also been partly attributed to an order by Sadr at the end of August last year to his thousands-strong Mehdi Army militia to observe a ceasefire.
But on Friday Sadr announced the creation of a new militia — the Brigades of the Promised Day — to fight the Americans and demanded that “the occupier leaves our beloved Iraq without any bases and without any accord.”
The objections of the firebrand cleric, who is believed to be living in Iran, will have little impact on the decision, given that his party only holds 28 seats in Iraq’s 275-seat parliament.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from