Roads to Iraq

The conflicting reports show the great concern among the political blocs of Maliki's government with the possibility that the United States will implement its threats of sudden withdrawal. A Short lived announcement from the Green Zone newspaper that SOFA's amendments will be submitted within 24 hours, to announce this morning that the meeting is postponed to the next week [the time ...

The Green Zone newspaper reported about Maliki's government three options to maneuver SOFA, but newspaper Al-Watan reported that the Russian and French diplomats in Baghdad joined the lobbyists [added to the British lobbyists]. The American threats still the hot topic of many Arab newspapers reports. A very funny comparison on Al-Qabas describes the American warning of the deteriorating security situation if ...

The problem with such articles like this one FP "Tenuous Agreement on Maintaining U.S. Troops in Iraq" is that they all forget one crucial point. This point is summarized by Iraqi writer Jawad Bashara in his last paragraph of his article published today called "Who is going to impose the de facto in Iraq?": The last factor which could turn the ...

Two articles criticize the U.S. pressure on the Iraqi government came from an unexpected sources. The articles published today on newspaper reflect the countries opinions because both are official newspaper. But let start with this one [which is not one of the two] published today on Iraqi Dawa newspaper which mirrors Maliki's Dawa Party opinion. The article "criticizes" the statement issued ...

Probably the British understood that there is no chance to sign something similar to SOFA with Iraq if the U.S. failed to "impose" the pact on Maliki's government. This is the reason behind the Green Zone newspaper Alsabaah's report this morning saying that the British are mediating between the Iraq and the U.S. to open the deadlock. A parliament source told ...

Saudi Foreign Minister Al-Faisal got it right this time asking in his statement yesterday: What's the use of a Saudi embassy inside a "fortress". The "fortress" here is the Green Zone. And Egyptian newspaper Youm7 gives an idea about this "fortress" which contains the Egyptian embassy soon: The Egyptian delegation studied the location [of the new embassy] inside the Green Zone carefully, a ...

One last desperate attempt by the U.S. officials is reported by the Green Zone newspaper Al-Sabaah saying they are pressuring to convince the Iraqi parliament to accept the agreement: U.S. officials met with the Iraqi Security and Defense Commission of the parliament for two hours but the American delegation left the meeting without any sign of progress shown in their faces. The ...

A bit late advice given today on New Europe's article "Learning the lessons of Iraq": The US should be working to create a strong, unified government, rather than strengthening sectarian militias. The question now: What to do? Will the U.S. revive the coup plan? Few weeks ago, Iraqi writer Haroun Mohammad said the following on Al-Quds Akl-Arabi: It is not coincidence that Iraqi officials ...

Nothing exceptional today, political blocs are still rallying the discussions. I bet Maliki's government is trying to delay signing the agreement as long as possible, hopping to get with Iraqi want from the Americans for free, see Obama's adviser article today "Cut troop presence in Iraq; deploy more to Afghanistan". The above is my own conclusion but also agreed on Al-Hayat ...

Allawi gives us more disputed-points, noted that there are differences between the English and the Arabic versions with many translation mistakes, and he had this to say: One of the points in the pact is to fight Al-Qaeda. This is a clear objective, but other points such as fighting the outlaws - Who are they? What does this word means? Another point, ...