Word: sadr
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...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 Anbar province sheiks ordinarily scornful of his government...
...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 not reject the pact in principle, but wants to squeeze more concessions out of Maliki...
...what U.S. troops do until then. Opponents of the deal warn that the government has signed secret codicils that give the U.S. far greater leeway than advertised and may keep American troops in Iraq indefinitely. Ajil Abdel-Hussein, an MP loyal to the Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, suggested the government was trying to lay the ground for a "new [U.S.] occupation of Iraq." (See pictures of U.S. troops' five years in Iraq...
...that if the parliament fails to ratify the agreement, the government will ask the U.N. to extend the mandate but allow for the possibility that it may last months rather than an entire year. A vote on the agreement is due on Monday, but more disruptions are likely. Al-Sadr has called for a massive anti-SOFA rally in Baghdad on Friday. Maliki will likely launch an eleventh-hour media blitz to try to convince Iraqis that the agreement is the only way forward. It's a good bet Iraqis will remain glued to their TV screens...
Whether al-Sadr's bloc of 28 lawmakers, coupled with Tawafuk's 44, vote for the agreement or not, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has the numbers to push it through. But his governing Shi'ite coalition and its Kurdish partners have made it clear that they don't want to do that without the approval of all of the country's main groups - Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds. "We are not prepared to approve this, the Shi'ites and Kurds alone," said lawmaker Redha Taki, a member of the Shi'ite Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. "By democratic means...