Iraqi Shi'ite says not too late to save U.S. pact

Mon Oct 27, 2008 3:08pm

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - It is not too late for the United States and Iraq to salvage a draft pact allowing U.S. troops to stay until 2011, one of Iraq's most powerful Shi'ite leaders said on Monday.

Ammar al-Hakim denied that Shi'ite parties in the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were stalling approval of the pact, which was reached earlier this month after months of painstaking negotiations with Washington.

"We think there is still a chance for consultations or negotiations by the Iraqi and American delegations," said Hakim, who runs the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), while its nominal leader, his father, suffers from poor health.

"There is sincerity from both sides to reach common wording," he said. "Iraqi security leaders still believe we need (the U.S. forces') help in order to continue building security institutions ... It should get legal cover -- either through the pact or through the United Nations."

The pact was negotiated by a team of advisers hand-picked by Maliki and gave Iraq important concessions, such as a firm 2011 withdrawal date and the power to try U.S. troops in its courts for crimes committed while off duty.

But days after a "final draft" was announced this month, the ruling Shi'ite coalition which includes ISCI and Maliki's Dawa Party announced it would seek amendments to it.

Washington has indicated that it would listen to proposals for minor adjustments in wording but does not want to renegotiate the main terms of the accord.

If the pact is not passed by December 31, Iraq says it will seek a renewal of a U.N. Security Council mandate for the U.S. troops. Washington has threatened to keep all its forces on bases and cut off services such as air traffic control if neither the pact nor an extended U.N. mandate is agreed in time.

IRAN'S DISAPPROVAL

Iran strongly opposes the U.S. pact, which it says would give its American arch foes a foothold in the region.

ISCI and other Shi'ite parties in the American-backed government in Baghdad have strong ties to Iran, where Hakim's father Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim lived for many years in exile.

The decision over the pact is widely seen as requiring Shi'ites to choose between their new friends in Washington and their old friends in Tehran. But Hakim denied that Iran was behind his party's request for amendments to the pact.

"Iraq's interest remains the basis for the decisions of (Iraqi) leaders," he said.

However, he also said that one of the changes ISCI is seeking to the pact is language that would make clearer that Iraqi territory would not be used as a base for attacks on neighboring states, which Iran calls its main concern.

"The Iraqi negotiating team saw that there is flexibility in some articles, which could in some cases allow Iraq to be used as a route or a base for operations ... against regional states," he said.

"This is one of the issues that needs developing, so that we can convince everybody that Iraq is a place for peace and building relationships," he said.

A raid on a village in Syria on Sunday is likely to attract more calls from Tehran to oppose the pact. Iran and Syria both complained on Monday after what they said were U.S. military helicopters struck a Syrian village near the border with Iraq.

Washington has declined to comment on the raid. Iraq says it targeted a staging ground of militants but has not said who carried it out.

(Reporting by Mariam Karouny; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Caroline Drees)