Word: iraq
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...Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, on Thursday finally got the broad consensus he sought on the Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. - 149 of the 198 lawmakers present in the 275-member National Assembly gave their support to a deal that allows American forces to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011. But Iraq's legislators also put the prime minister on notice: "We want to tell Maliki that we are building a new democracy, and that we're not ready anymore to let the power be in one man's hands, no matter...
...strange thing to say about anything that leads to brawls in parliament, angry demonstrations and fiery rhetoric from the Prime Minister. But the deal between the U.S. and Iraq over the future presence of American troops has unified Iraq in unexpected ways. Politicians agree that the U.S. military must withdraw, and soon--and while they disagree fiercely about whether the end of 2011 is soon enough, the debate has brought together some unlikely bedfellows. Sunni hard-liners joined Shi'ites loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in opposing the deal, while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won enthusiastic backing from...
...deal, known as the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), is inarguable: after nearly six years, it would mark the beginning of the end of the U.S. occupation. Under SOFA's terms, the U.S. would withdraw nearly all 150,000 of its troops by New Year's Day 2012, leaving Iraq's security in the hands of its own army...
...enter the session, leaving the Speaker with little choice but to reschedule the vote for Thursday. "We want our demands met, and they have not been," said Omar Abdel-Sattar al-Karboole, a member of Tawafuk, as the bell rang. (See photos of five years of U.S. troops in Iraq...
...Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) has deeply divided Iraq's political factions. Proponents of the pact, led by Maliki's Shi'ite bloc and its Kurdish allies, emphasize that it reflects the fact that the Iraqi government has forced Washington to accept hard deadlines for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, and to make other concessions. Nationalist opponents led by firebrand Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr reject the agreement in principle, because it gives an Iraqi stamp of approval to the U.S. military presence in Iraq, which is currently authorized by the U.N. Security Council. The Sunni Tawafuk bloc, meanwhile, does...