The Washington Post, November 16, 2008 (excerpts)

Iraq’s cabinet has approved a security pact which allows about 150,000 US troops to remain in the country for another three years, a government spokesman has confirmed.

The draft Status of Forces Agreement (Sofa) was passed by the cabinet on Sunday and will now be sent to parliament for their approval.

All but one of the 28 cabinet members present in the session voted in favour of the deal, Ali al-Dabbagh, Iraqi government spokesman, said.
“There was a positive position taken on the part of the larger blocs and all the most important blocs,” Dabbagh said.

On Sunday, the White House welcomed as a “positive step” Iraq’s cabinet approving an agreement allowing US troops to stay until 2011.

“While the process is not yet complete, we remain hopeful and confident we’ll soon have an agreement that serves both the people of Iraq and the United States well and sends a signal to the region and the world that both our governments are committed to a stable, secure and democratic Iraq,” Gordon Johndroe, the White House spokesman, said.

The security agreement, which has undergone a series of revisions during months of wrangling and opposition from many ordinary Iraqis, now sets 2011 as a fixed deadline for US forces to leave Iraq.

Hoshyar Zebari, Iraq’s foreign minister, said he expected the deal to be passed by parliament before the end of the month.

“Most of the parliament has not read this agreement. One of the main issues is that no-one in Iraq except the cabinet has read it.”

Ahead of the vote, Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, dispatched Khalid al-Attiyah and Ali al-Adeeb, two senior Shia legislators to Najaf to secure the support of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country’s top Shia cleric.

The Associated Press quoted a senior official at al-Sistani’s office as saying the cleric told the prime minister’s emissaries that the draft document represented “the best available option” for Iraq, signalling that he would not object to it if the cabinet and parliament approve it.

The Iranian-born al-Sistani commands enormous influence with Iraq’s Shia majority.

The UN mandate covering the presence of US forces in Iraq expires on December 31, and failure to pass the security agreement would leave Iraq with little choice but to seek a renewal of the mandate.