Again, no SOFA with­out the cler­ics approval

Al-Adeeb who is sec­ond in rank after Maliki in Dawa Party told Al-Mashriq news­pa­per [no link allowed, see image above] that high ref­er­ences cler­ics must decide to approve the secu­rity agree­ment or not after the par­lia­ment approval.

He added that reli­gious cler­ics are very influ­en­tial in the Iraqi streets and polit­i­cal blocs are obliged to take their opin­ions in the agreement.

No Amer­i­can bases in Kurdistan

Kur­dish sources told Kuwaiti news­pa­per Al-Watan that Maliki refused to include Kur­dis­tan among the U.S. mil­i­tary bases pres­ence in the SOFA agree­ment, noted that Maliki used Iran and Turkey’s refusal to pre­vent the Amer­i­can from estab­lish­ing and Amer­i­can base in Kur­dis­tan. They also said that there is no Amer­i­can forces pres­ence in Kur­dis­tan since the fall of Sad­dam in 2003.

Maliki was also not very sup­port­ive for the pres­ence of U.S. forces to join Iraqi Kurds forces to fight against the Turk­ish — Kur­dish PKK on the Turkey’s bor­der a year ago.

The sources con­clu­sion is that Bagh­dad fears reflects Iran and Turkey fears of the grow­ing rela­tions between the Kurds and the U.S. and the future pos­si­bil­i­ties that the Kurds will announce the inde­pen­dent Kur­dis­tan state.

Iron­i­cally is that Maliki used the Min­is­ter of For­eign Affairs Zebari who is a Kurds to push this agenda in the nego­ti­a­tions with the Americans.