Iraqi lawmakers fight over accord
Cleric’s followers plan rally today to protest U.S. pact

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Comments 0
Published: November 21, 2008

BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers persevered Thursday in debate on a proposed security deal with the U.S. There were raucous attempts by opposition lawmakers to disrupt proceedings ahead of next week’s vote on the plan.

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Leadership to be tested

Iraq’s Shiite-led government has demanded control over U.S.-funded Sunni groups that revolted against al-Qaida in Iraq in Diyala province by January. The demand could jeopardize fragile security gains in the area. The transfer will be a major test of the Iraqi leadership’s ability to overcome bitter rivalries between Sunnis and Shiites.

The measure, which would keep U.S. forces in Iraq for three more years, has a good chance of passing in the Shiite-led parliament. But the uproar created by loyalists of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr suggests the pact could remain divisive.

If al-Sadr’s group and other legislators opposed to the pact lose by a thin margin in the vote planned for Monday, they might attempt to turn their anti-American message into a defining issue in provincial elections on Jan. 31 and general elections late in 2009. His followers planned a major rally today in central Baghdad to protest the security deal, which they view as a surrender to U.S. interests.

In fact, the pact establish for the first time a clear timetable for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. They must be out of cities by June 30, 2009, and the entire country by the end of 2011.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has publicly defended the pact twice this week. He noted that the pact allowed for the restoration of Iraq’s control of its airspace.