BAGHDAD (Agencies)
Iraq's parliament will delay until Thursday a vote on a controversial military pact including a timeline for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops by 2011, Speaker of
Parliament Mahmud Mashhadani said.
"The general atmosphere indicates there will be an agreement, the leaders have agreed on all the points under discussion except for one," Mashhadani said as parliament briefly convened for the announcement.
He did not give any further details on the delay, which comes after a flurry of negotiations among the country's fractured political blocs.
The 275-member assembly is due to vote by a show of hands on the wide-ranging accord, which would rule a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009 and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011.
The measure enjoys the support of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Kurdish alliance, and a number of independent MPs -- enough for it to pass with slightly more than the requisite simple majority of 138 votes
Iraqi leaders consider that to be a major victory, after the administration of outgoing President George W. Bush had said it would not accept a fixed timetable.
Parliament's approval, which appeared likely but was not guaranteed, is the last big hurdle to the pact's ratification.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki says the pact was Iraq's best hope for restoring its sovereignty whilst avoiding a return to the sectarian bloodshed of recent years, when militias from the majority Shiites battled once dominant Sunnis who initially aligned themselves with al-Qaeda fighters.
But it faces opposition in the house from several factions.
Followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr oppose any agreement with a force they see as occupiers. Last Friday a demonstration against the pact drew thousands.
Other political factions, including the main Sunni Arab bloc, say they have reservations about it and have presented lists of demands they want met before they can approve it. Iraq's leaders have been in frantic last-minute talks for days to try to reach an agreement with skeptical factions.
Cabinet warned this week that a failure to back it could again unleash the violence that threatened to tear Iraq apart.
If approved, the deal gives Iraq formal authority over the U.S. presence for the first time, replacing a U.N. Security Council mandate. U.S. troops must quit Iraqi towns and villages by the middle of next year, then leave Iraq within three years.
Violence has fallen to lows not seen since after the invasion but militants still carry out devastating attacks. Nineteen people died in bomb attacks across Baghdad on Monday. |
