BAGHDAD — Iraq’s top Shiite cleric has expressed concern about the country’s security pact with the United States, fearing it gives too much power to the Americans and does not protect Iraqi sovereignty, an official at his office said Saturday.
Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Al-Sistani, enters a room in Al-Abdaly on the Iraqi side of the border with Kuwait in this file photo from Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2004. (AP Photo/ APTN)
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Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s comments fell short of outright rejection but will put pressure on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shiite-led government to sell the deal to the public before Iraqi voters render a final decision in a referendum to be held by July 30.
The pact also has to be ratified by Iraq’s three-man presidential council before it comes into force.
Al-Sistani, who wields tremendous influence among Iraq’s majority Shiites, had indicated that he would not object to the pact if it was passed by a comfortable majority in parliament.
Parliament approved the agreement Thursday in a session attended by just under 200 of the legislature’s 275 lawmakers. But the official at al-Sistani’s office said the Iranian-born cleric did not believe there was a national consensus in favor of the pact and that this "may lead to instability in the country.”
The official added that al-Sistani considered parts of the agreement vague, particularly those pertaining to legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops and controls over the exit and entry into Iraq of U.S. forces.
If the agreement is rejected by voters, Iraq’s government would either have to re-negotiate it with the Americans or drop it altogether.
Al-Sistani’s comments are likely to be welcomed by the Sunnis who had campaigned hard to get the Shiites and Kurds to meet their demand to put the pact to a popular vote.
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The agreement gives a clear timeline for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, from the cities by June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012. It also gives Iraq strict oversight over their movements and operations as well as limited jurisdiction in the case of serious crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and civilian Pentagon employees when off-base and off-duty.
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