The Iraqi Government continues to balk at the Bush Administration’s proposals for a Status of Forces Agreement:
AMMAN, June 13 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Friday talks with the United States on a new long-term security pact were deadlocked because of U.S. demands that infringed Iraq’s sovereignty.
“We have reached a deadlock, because when we started the talks, we found that the U.S. demands hugely infringe on the sovereignty of Iraq, and this we can never accept,” Maliki said, speaking in Arabic to journalists during a visit to Jordan.
(…)
In his first detailed comments on the talks, Maliki said Iraq objected to Washington’s insistence on giving its troops immunity from prosecution in Iraq and freedom to conduct operations independent of Iraqi control.
“We can’t extend the U.S. forces permission to arrest Iraqis or to undertake the responsibility of fighting terrorism in an independent way, or to keep Iraqi skies and waters open for themselves whenever they want,” he said.
“One of the important issues that the U.S. is asking for is immunity for its soldiers and those contracting with it. We reject this totally.”
At this point, I would consider it entirely unlikely that any agreement will be made before the Bush Administration leaves office. First, because the Iraqis are quite vehement in their objections, and, second, because they know that all they have to do is wait until after the election and the entire political landscape may have changed.
June 13th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Good for them. Let them be their own nation instead of America-East.