Word: maliki
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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...
...riveting episode of political theater, Iraqi legislators dealt a blow to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Wednesday when the stony-faced Speaker of the National Assembly postponed a crucial vote on the Status of Forces Agreement with Washington that would send home American troops...
...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...
...Maliki and his allies have the numbers to push SOFA through the parliament, but without overwhelming Sunni approval, the agreement would be tainted by its lack of national consensus. And so, the frenetic horse-trading over the security agreement has become a game of brinkmanship. On Wednesday, the prime minister personally lobbied recalcitrant parliamentarians at the nearby Rasheed Hotel, in exchanges that degenerated into fiery rows, according to a Maliki aide who was present...
...National Assembly rejects the agreement or fails to vote on it, the Iraqis would have to ask the U.N to extend its mandate. Such a request would have to be lodged with the Security Council before Dec. 15, according to Ali al-Adeeb, a parliamentary member of Maliki's Dawa Party. That's an option Maliki has all but ruled out, and is strenuously working to avoid, but the clock is ticking. "The government wasted a lot of time, hundreds of days on this agreement, and left us with less than two weeks to debate it," said al-Karboole...