U.S. reviews Iraqi amendments to troops pact
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States said on Wednesday it was examining changes demanded by Iraq to a stalled security pact that sets the conditions under which American troops could operate in the country after this year.
Iraq announced last week that it wanted changes to a final draft hammered out after months of negotiations with Washington, which would replace a U.N. Security Council mandate for U.S. troops that expires at the end of 2008.
Failure to seal the pact or renew the U.N. mandate would mean U.S. operations would have to be halted. The draft agreement calls for a drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of 2011 and includes a U.S. concession on immunity for U.S. troops who breach Iraqi law.
Both sides say they are eager to save the agreement before the Security Council resolution expires. The Iraqi cabinet has moved quickly, approving the proposed changes on Tuesday and sending them straight to the Americans.
"We got them. We are looking at them," embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said of the proposed amendments.
The Iraqi amendment proposals have not been made public, but Iraq's government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Tuesday that they included changes to some of the "content" of the text as well as its wording.
U.S. officials did not hide their frustration when Iraq said it wanted amendments to a pact that appeared to be finalized after months of painstaking negotiations with a team of senior advisers hand-picked by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
The pact must also be sent to parliament for approval.
Washington has made clear it does not want to renegotiate the substance of the agreement, which already includes a number of important concessions to Baghdad, including a firm withdrawal date of 2011 and the power to try U.S. soldiers for serious crimes committed while off duty.
But accepting the pact has been politically challenging for Iraqi leaders, including Maliki's own ruling Shi'ite coalition which has historic ties to Washington's arch foe, Iran.
Environment Minister Nermeen Othman, who attended Tuesday's cabinet meeting, said the amendment proposals were mainly intended to remove ambiguities and would not alter the clause covering criminal jurisdiction over U.S. troops.
PROVINCE HANDED OVER
Violence in Iraq has fallen to four-year lows, giving the government in Baghdad increasing confidence in its negotiations with Washington. U.S. forces handed over control of the last province south of Baghdad to Iraqi forces on Wednesday.
Wasit province along the Iranian border was the 13th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by U.S. forces to Iraqi control. Only the capital Baghdad and four volatile northern provinces are still under U.S. command.
"This is considered a national holiday for Wasit province and its people," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government's security adviser, said at a ceremony in a stadium in the provincial capital Kut, which ended with a military parade.
Lieutenant-General Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. combat forces in Iraq, said the province had experienced 16 to 18 attacks a week just seven months ago, and now frequently went for weeks without no attacks recorded.
Turning over a province to Iraqi control means U.S. forces no longer conduct routine patrols, although they may still be involved in military operations with Iraqi approval.
Wasit province was the scene of fighting during an uprising by followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in March and April this year, but like other parts of the south has since become largely quiet while Sadr's followers observe a ceasefire.
Violence is now mainly concentrated in four northern provinces where U.S. forces say Sunni Islamist al Qaeda fighters are making a stand after being driven from other areas.
Rubaie said the handover of two of those northern provinces, Kirkuk and Salahuddin, would take place "in the coming weeks."
(Additional reporting by Jaafar al-Taie in Kut; Editing by Samia Nakhoul)
