U.S. pact can pass Iraqi parliament: minister
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A pact allowing U.S. troops to stay in Iraq for three more years has a chance of being approved by parliament despite some heated opposition, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Thursday.
Zebari and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker signed the long-awaited pact on Monday after months of intense negotiations. But Iraq's parliament, which has been raucously debating it this week, must still pass it.
A vote is expected early next week before lawmakers leave for a holiday recess.
"I believe the chance exists that parliament will be successful in passing the pact," Zebari told a joint news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, who is on a visit to Baghdad.
Zebari has previously said that the political atmosphere in parliament toward the pact was positive.
The main political groups in Maliki's ruling coalition have lined up behind the pact, but followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr oppose it and Sunni Arab groups and smaller parties have expressed reservations.
Zebari's bodyguards scuffled with Sadrist lawmakers on Wednesday after heated exchanges in the house.
The foreign minister also said parliament should only approve or reject the pact, not attempt to amend it.
"The mission of the parliament is to approve the pact not to renegotiate it, because the government, according to the constitution, has the power to sign such pacts," he said.
(Reporting by Khalid al-Ansary; Editing by Charles Dick)
