Iraq's al-Maliki says no agreement signed for US troops to stay

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Iraq's al-Maliki says no agreement signed for US troops to stay

Apr 26, 2011, 15:41 GMT


Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Tuesday that he has not signed an agreement for the remaining 50,000 US troops stationed in Iraq to stay beyond their scheduled withdrawal at the end of the year.
'There is no agreement to this day with the US administration to keep 10,000 or 5,000, or 1,000 or even 100 US troops in Iraq,' said al-Maliki.
His remarks come after Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday at a US military base outside Baghdad that Iraq's government must decide within weeks whether it wants any US troops to remain beyond the end of the year.
'We do not need to keep US troops in Iraq,' al-Maliki told press on Tuesday. 'Iraqi forces and security services have become viable are able to control the security situation.'
However, he said that there is still no specific date set for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq this year, adding that the Iraqi government will give the USsufficient time to withdraw its forces as promised.
His remarks come after at least one protester was killed and 44 injured when security forces fired live ammunition to disperse hundreds of protesters gathered Friday in northern Iraq's city of Mosul, who were demanding the US keep to its scheduled withdrawal at the end of 2011.
Tribal leaders and members of the provincial council joined over 1,000 protesters who vowed to continue their rallies until US forces leave the country amid suggestions that troops might stay beyond their scheduled departure.
Baghdad - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Tuesday that he has not signed an agreement for the remaining 50,000 US troops stationed in Iraq to stay beyond their scheduled withdrawal at the end of the year.

'There is no agreement to this day with the US administration to keep 10,000 or 5,000, or 1,000 or even 100 US troops in Iraq,' said al-Maliki.
His remarks come after Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday at a US military base outside Baghdad that Iraq's government must decide within weeks whether it wants any US troops to remain beyond the end of the year.
'We do not need to keep US troops in Iraq,' al-Maliki told press on Tuesday. 'Iraqi forces and security services have become viable are able to control the security situation.'
However, he said that there is still no specific date set for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq this year, adding that the Iraqi government will give the USsufficient time to withdraw its forces as promised.
His remarks come after at least one protester was killed and 44 injured when security forces fired live ammunition to disperse hundreds of protesters gathered Friday in northern Iraq's city of Mosul, who were demanding the US keep to its scheduled withdrawal at the end of 2011.
Tribal leaders and members of the provincial council joined over 1,000 protesters who vowed to continue their rallies until US forces leave the country amid suggestions that troops might stay beyond their scheduled departure.




On anniversary of Saddam's fall, Iraq's Sadr issues warning on US presence

Hardline Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr rallied thousands of followers Saturday. Their message: United States civilians as well as troops must leave by the end of the year.

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On anniversary of Saddam's fall, Iraq's Sadr issues warning on US presence - CSMonitor.com


Demonstrators hold a picture of Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Saturday at a rally. He issued a call for the United States to leave Iraq on the anniversary of Saddam Hussein's fall.
Kareem Raheem/Reuters

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By Jane Arraf, Correspondent / April 9, 2011
Baghdad Hardline Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr mobilized tens of thousands of followers Saturday, using the anniversary of the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s regime to issue a warning to American civilians as well as soldiers that it was time to go.
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Far from Baghdad's Firdous Square, where US Marines helped Iraqis bring down Saddam Hussein’s statue in 2003, the cleric’s supporters marched from Sadr City to Mustansiriya Square, near a major university in northeast Baghdad. Black smoke rose from the square from the burning American flags, and protesters set up a grisly display of Americans in business suits being burned in cages.
“We are time bombs,” the protesters chanted between a choreographed wave of young men dressed in the satin colors of Iraq's flag.
The protest was the first major Sadr demonstration since demonstrations began sweeping the Arab world this year. Sadr – who has reinvented himself as s serious political figure after his leadership of the paramilitary Mahdi Army, which fought US forces in 2004 – has called for restraint in protests against the Iraqi government, in which his party members now play a key role. Instead, the young cleric has used the possibility of massive protests as a veiled threat against the government.
Mr. Sadr is in Iran, where he is pursuing his religious education. But in a message read by senior Sadr party official Saleh al-Obeidi, Sadr urged his followers not to stand by if there were still a significant American presence here next year – civilian or military.
IN PICTURES: Troops come home

“What if the invading forces don’t leave our land? What if they stay in in another form?... If their companies, embassies have the invading American flags waving over them will you remain silent?” Sadr asked in the message.
The cleric went on to say that if that US presence remained it would mean two things: “escalating the work of the military resistance and re-activating the Mahdi Army.”
Asked whether that meant that the Sadrists were opposed to even a US diplomatic mission here if US forces were gone, several officials said the Sadr movement opposed any expansion of the US civilian presence here and considered the embassy the headquarters for the occupation.
US Ambassador James Jeffrey told reporters April 1 that the embassy, already the biggest in the world, planned to double in size next year to 18,000 personnel. That would include security, support staff, and diplomatic offices outside of Baghdad.
Sadr ended his message by calling on all his followers who could to register at the political party’s offices to engage in an open-ended protest until the Americans left.
Most Iraqis are deeply cynical about US intentions here.
“Iraq is a very rich country,” said Sabah al-Amiri, a government employee who came out to the protest. “Logically, I can’t believe the Americans will leave and ignore these interests easily.”
In the complex political climate here, the countdown for US forces to exit Iraq has placed the United States in a bind.
Under a painfully negotiated status of forces agreement, the remaining 47,000 US troops in Iraq are to be out of the country by the end of the year. Carrying out the withdrawal is becoming the main task of US troops here, overshadowing their official role of advising and assisting Iraqi forces.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, on a low-profile visit to Iraq this week, told Iraqi leaders that time was running out if they intended to ask for some US troops to stay next year.
Although Iraq lacks the capability to defend either its air space or land borders, asking for US forces to be stationed here past this year has become politically untenable. Iraqi officials suggest the US has abandoned the idea and will rely on the kind of bilateral agreements with limited scope it has for military cooperation with other countries.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki managed to cobble together a coalition government after last year’s disputed elections only after Moqtada Sadr, a longtime political enemy, agreed to join forces with Mr. Maliki.
A Sadr withdrawal from the coalition could bring down Maliki’s already fragile government.
Although the April 9 anniversary was declared a national holiday starting in 2004, in recent years discontent over the aftermath of the war has made it a controversial occasion. On Saturday, Maliki delivered a lengthy televised speech commemorating Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Bakr al-Sadr, Muqtada's father-in-law and founder of the Dawa party, who was executed on April 9, 1980. The prime minister, however, made no mention of the symbolic end of Saddam's regime on the same date in 2003.
Firdous Square, where the statue was toppled, was deserted on the anniversary. But a small part of the original statue of Saddam, Saddam’s shoe, is still visible. It reemerged after the abstract sculpture that replaced his statue was worn away.
Across the square at the Palestine Hotel, where a US tank round killed two journalists in 2003, scaffolding is going up as the renovated hotel prepares to reopen for an Arab League summit scheduled for May, marking Iraq’s re-emergence in the region.
Laith Hammoudi contributed reporting.

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Iraqi PM denies any arrangement for extension of U.S. troops so far

English.news.cn 2011-04-26 22:00:03 FeedbackPrintRSS BAGHDAD, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki denied Tuesday that his government would allow several thousands of U.S. servicemen to stay in the country beyond the deadline of the end of 2011.
"There is no agreement for the presence of U.S. troops. Not 10, 000, not 1,000, not 200 and not 100. Absolutely, there is no understanding or any agreement yet," Maliki told reporters during a news conference in Baghdad's Green Zone.
"I confirm that the ministerial council did not discuss this issue, and did not submit a draft of agreement to the parliament to discuss it," Maliki said.
There is no term in the previous agreement (Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA) would allow any extension for U.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2011, he said.
"If someone wants some American troops to stay at any camp, he will need approval from the Iraqi parliament," Maliki added.
He said that such substantial issue will require national approval, and his government will soon put forward the issue to the leaders of the political blocs to decide.
"This is a big issue and requires national unanimity. This is responsibility of all the political blocs which must agree on one decision," Maliki said.
"Either they (political blocs) will all agree, or will all refuse," he said, referring to the principle of sharing the responsibility in Iraq's new national partnership government.
Earlier in the day, the Iraqi newspaper of al-Mashriq reported that the Iraqi government is preparing to accept the presence of more than 15,000 U.S. service members in Iraq to protect the U.S. interests after the deadline of U.S. troops' pullout by the end of 2011.
"The Iraqi government will arrange a special status that would allow more than 15,000 U.S. service members to stay in Iraq beyond the end of this year," the daily quoted sources as saying.
The full U.S. troops withdrawal will be announced as scheduled (by the end of 2011) and the remaining of thousands of U.S. troops will be attributed to the protecting the embassy staff, foreign diplomatic corps and international companies in the country, it said.
In mid 2010, U.S. troops in Iraq had been reduced to below 50, 000 soldiers. Washington said that the remaining U.S. troops in Iraq are conducting support and training missions.
U.S. military forces are to pull out completely from Iraq by the end of 2011 according to the security pact SOFA which was signed late in 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.