Iraq expects reply on security deal after US elections

IRAQ expects Washington’s reply on proposed changes to a draft security agreement after the US elections, an aide to the prime minister said yesterday.

Yassin Majeed said the US will respond to Iraq’s amendments to the pact after Tuesday’s elections so the new president-elect can be informed of the status of the talks.

Since May, US and Iraqi officials have been trying to hammer out a new security agreement by the end of the year that would keep US troops in the country until 2011.

The current draft calls for all US forces to leave by December 31, 2011, unless Iraq asks them to stay. It also gives Iraqi courts limited jurisdiction over US troops accused of major crimes committed off-post and off-duty.

But the pact faces opposition from Iraqi lawmakers, and prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet is pressing for changes in the draft text before submitting it to parliament for approval.

Al-Maliki wants more jurisdiction over US troops and guarantees that Iraqi territory will not be used by the US to launch attacks on neighbouring countries. Baghdad also wants to remove language that could allow the US to stay beyond the end of 2011.

Without a new agreement, the US would have to suspend all security and assistance operations in the country by the end of the year when the current pact expires.

Iraqi authorities are feeling more confident since a sharp drop in violence in the country after the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and the routing of Shi’ite militias in Baghdad and southern Iraq last spring.

Still, attacks continue, although at a lower level, and US officials warn the gains are reversible.

Meanwhile, the US commander running the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, arrived in Pakistan yesterday for talks with government and military officials, a US embassy spokesman said.

His visit to Pakistan, his first foreign tour since taking charge of US Central Command on Friday, highlights growing concern in the United States about a country seen as crucial to bringing stability to neighbouring Afghanistan and defeating al-Qaida.