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Iraq's Parliament Delays Vote on Security Pact With U.S.
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The mandate gives the U.S. military greater powers than the status-of-forces agreement, which calls for stricter oversight of U.S. troops and closer cooperation between the Iraqi government and the American military. It would make U.S. soldiers accountable under Iraqi laws for some crimes committed when they are off base and off duty, although it would allow U.S. authorities to determine whether a service member was off duty.
Abadi, of the Dawa party, said that after parliament approves the agreement, as is widely expected, it will pass a law allowing the referendum. The Sunnis' political demands would also be voted on separately in parliament.
Mahmoud Othman, an independent Kurdish member of parliament, said lawmakers were still wrangling over the details of the proposed referendum. Iraq's politicians have often reversed their positions at the last minute, and it was possible they would do the same on Thursday, he said.
"The Kurds have no objection on this demand," Othman said. "But I don't think it's realistic to hold a vote in six months. Perhaps, a year."
Other lawmakers questioned the legality of holding a referendum on the security agreement. "No article in the constitution allows that," said Muhsin Sadoun al-Karkary, a Kurdish lawmaker and a member of parliament's legal committee. "In case they put in this item of the referendum, then the government should solve this problem later because legally and constitutionally, such a referendum is not allowed."
Ahmad al-Masoudi, head of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, said its members do not oppose a referendum, "because the Iraqi people should have their say on the agreement."
"We totally reject the agreement itself because it would legalize the presence of the occupation forces in Iraq, not to pull them out," Masoudi said.
Staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington and special correspondents Qais Mizher, Zaid Sabah, K.I. Ibrahim and Aziz Alwan in Baghdad contributed to this report.
