Iraq parliament engulfed in protests over US pact

[November 20, 2008]  BAGHDAD (AP) -- As opposition lawmakers shouted and pounded their desks in protest, Iraq's parliament on Thursday resumed deliberating a proposed security agreement with the United States that would allow American forces to stay there three more years.

The parliament completed a second reading of the proposal, the last step prior to the opening of debate on the security pact ahead of the Nov. 24 vote.

Lawmakers loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr sought to disrupt Thursday's reading as they did the previous day, when they scuffled with security guards after one of them aggressively approached the bench while a lawmaker from the ruling Shiite coalition was reading the text aloud.

On Thursday, the Sadrists attempted to drown out the voice of the lawmaker reading it aloud. Shouting matches later ensued, with Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani barely able to control the chaos in the 275-seat chamber.

But unlike Wednesday, there were no scuffles among lawmakers and orderly proceedings continued.

Also Thursday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said the alternative to the security pact -- a renewal or an extension of the U.N. mandate providing legal cover for U.S. forces in Iraq -- would compromise Iraq's sovereignty.

"The danger of an extension is the removal of Iraq's sovereignty and facing the same problem again, which will drive us back to searching for another agreement" with the Americans, al-Maliki said.

He assured Iraqis that the timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. forces under the agreement -- out of Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and the entire country by the end of 2011 -- is not negotiable and could even be moved up.

Al-Maliki's Cabinet approved the agreement last weekend, meaning the pact stands a good chance of passage in parliament since the government's parties dominate the legislature.

But the vocal opposition in parliament points to a possibly narrow victory for the government in the vote, which would cast a shadow on the legitimacy of a deal that al-Maliki has said should be approved with a broad consensus.

Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said the deal would be acceptable only if approved by a wide margin in parliament. Al-Sistani enjoy enormous influence among Iraq's Shiite majority. He could bury the deal if he speaks publicly against it.

If the agreement passes the legislature, it will go to the president and his two deputies for ratification. Each one -- President Jalal Talabani and vice presidents Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Tariq al-Hashemi -- has the power to veto the agreement.

Shiite coalition parties, which have 85 seats, and the Kurdish bloc, with 54, firmly support the pact, and their votes alone amount to a thin majority. They might also pick up support from smaller parties.

However, the position of their Sunni Arab allies, the three-party Iraqi Accordance Front, is less certain and many of those 44 lawmakers might not back the deal.

Beside the Sadrists, who have about 30 lawmakers, the small Shiite Fadhila party, which has 15 seats, and a small Sunni Arab bloc with 11 seats are firmly opposed to the deal.

[Associated Press; By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA]

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