Iraq seeks way out of British troop pact impasse

THE Iraqi government and lawmakers struggled to find a way to allow non-US foreign forces remain in Iraq next year, after parliament rejected a law that would have sanctioned their presence yesterday.

The law setting an end-July withdrawal date for British, Australian, Romanian, Estonian, Salvadoran and Nato soldiers was rejected because parliament said foreign relations could not technically be governed by simple legislation.

Iraq needed an agreement or a treaty for that, the lawmakers said, demanding the government negotiate something similar in format to the US-Iraq security pact that allows 140,000 or so US troops in Iraq to stay for three more years.

One option being discussed was for parliament to pass a resolution giving the foreign forces temporary permission to be in Iraq until a treaty is reached, said deputy Ridha Jawad Taqi of the Shi’ite Alliance, part of the ruling coalition.

Anything else would take too long, he said. “We don’t have time. The authorisation for these forces must be released before the end of this year. The problem with this is the British and Australians. They want parliamentary cover for the presence of their forces.”

The deals covering the presence of foreign troops replace a UN mandate, which expires at the end of the year, and also mark the beginning of the end of the Iraq war, more than five years after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.