Roads to Iraq

No need for the American to celebrate this “Negotiators agree on US security pact draft” yet, as I said yesterday: This is a routine procedure.

The United Iraqi Alliance’s MP Al-Bayati explains here on Al-Mada that there will be more negotiations with the Americans after this approval to clarify more articles in the agreement.

But you need to see this development:

The whole time, Kurds were the only political bloc supported the approval of the security agreement. Not anymore, Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman said:

I don’t support the signing of the agreement … it will strengthen the Iraqi government … The U.S. forces will withdraw from the country ….There no reference to the protection of the Kurdistan region.

Othman said that there are two articles, Iraq government can use against the Kurds:

- The Iraqi government has the right to sign security agreements with neighboring countries. History tells that all treaties and security agreements signed by Iraq with neighboring countries were at the expense of the Kurdish people.

- The right of the Iraqi government to use force against internal rebellions, and this too could be interpreted in many ways, it did not identify the rebellions, is it al-Qaeda or remnants of the Baath. It is possible that Iraq will use this article against us.

An article published Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas counts Maliki’s brief history with the political problems calling the security agreement: “The mother of all problems”:

Maliki wishes to sign the security agreement with Washington, to protect his government – and stay in power for few more years. However, the prime minister wants at the same time that the agreement would be free of items that legitimizes the occupation or turns the U.S. – Iraq relations into mandate. Maliki would prefer to share the responsibility of signing the agreement with other [political blocs].