Roads to Iraq

Is SOFA approval, an Iranian gesture to Obama to improve the relations between Iran and the U.S.?

Surprisingly, we can not find the “usual” Iranian inflammatory criticism and the “daily” attacks on SOFA today.

Contrary to all media report saying that Sistani gave Maliki’s government [especially, Al-Hakim's Supreme Council] the green light (to say the “Yes” word approving SOFA), Kuwaiti newspaper says that Sistani’s role is very exaggerated:

Sistani’s refused to give his own opinion to the Shiites United Iraqi Alliance’s delegation. According to an Iraqi source Sistani said that the duty of the Iraqi government is to maintain Iraq’s sovereignty, and he will leave the details to the government and the Iraqi people through their representation in the government to approve the agreement.

Political institutions should depend on themselves and not wait for the opinions issued by the Supreme-references.

The link to Iran is reported by Azzaman:

Adbul Al-Aziz Al-Hakim the leader of the Supreme Council, [who is already in Iran for cancer treatment], gave his followers in the Iraqi government the green light to vote in favor of the agreement.

And here is Obama in the whole story:

The same sources told the newspaper that the American-side informed Maliki that that American negotiators briefed Obama on the final draft of the security agreement and he showed his commitment to agree on George Bush’s signature and the implementation of SOFA.

Al-Akhbar connects the missing dots saying:

The real “green light” came from Tehran with its silence. Even the Iranian TV described the agreement as “a big achievement for Maliki’s government”.

Muqtada Al-Sadr wrote a letter shows his rejection to the approval [notice that he mentioned Al-Hakim's United Iraqi Alliance by name]:

This is the first humiliation and shame mark, printed by the current Iraqi government with the help of [United Iraqi] Alliance and the Kurdish parties who agreed to sign the agreement with the occupiers.

Pointing out that” The withdrawal of the occupier”, while their withdrawal is a legitimate national duty needs no agreement with those who don’t have a honor or religion.

God never allowed the unbelievers to dominate over the Muslims. This agreement is canceled ….I invites the Iraqi parliament to reject it, without any hesitation, this [agreement] means to sell Iraq and its people as other Muslim states and people are sold before.

The Sadrists made a real buzz today in the parliament first SOFA discussion session, claiming that the “SOFA discussion” is on today’s schedule and successfully managed to cancel the session [and I personally expect that the Sadrists will use much such harassment in the coming days].

As for Zebari and the U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker to put their signature today, Iraqi MP Al-Samarai said that this psychological stunt to pressure the Iraqi parliament saying:

This is a message to the parliament means that the approval or the rejection of SOFA by the parliament has no meaning.

Kurdish MP Mahmud Othman told Fars News that the Iraqi government gave the parliament one week to approve the agreement, but the Sunni MP from the “Accordance Front” says that SOFA approval in the parliament is not that easy; SOFA must pass five stages before the final approval:

There are only 30 days to approve the agreement [before 31 December], is this enough for all these procedures?

Kurdish spokesman told Iraqalaan that the Americans agreed on some amendments demanded by the Kurds on the Kurdistan region relations with the central governemnt.