Obama’s victory begins to shift political ground in Iraq – paper

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Barack Obama may have been elected only three days ago, but his victory is already beginning to shift the political ground in Iraq  and the region, the New York Times reported on Friday. “Iraqi Shiite politicians are indicating that they will move faster toward a new security agreement about American troops, and a Bush administration official said he believed that Iraqis could ratify the agreement as early as the middle of this month,” the paper said. “Before, the Iraqis were thinking that if they sign the pact, there will be no respect for the schedule of troop withdrawal by Dec. 31, 2011,” said Hadi al-Ameri, a powerful member of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq , a major Shiite party. “If Republicans were still there, there would be no respect for this timetable. This is a positive step to have the same theory about the timetable as Mr. Obama.” Mr. Obama has said that he favors a 16-month schedule for withdrawing combat brigades, a timetable about twice as fast as that provided for in the draft American and Iraqi accord. “Many Shiite politicians had been under intense pressure from Iranian leaders not to sign a security agreement. Iran , which has close ties to Shiite politicians, has feared the agreement would lay the groundwork for a permanent American troop presence in Iraq that would threaten Iran ,” according to the New York Times. “But now, the Iraqis appear to be feeling less pressure from Iran, perhaps because the Iranians are less worried that an Obama government will try to force a regime change in their country,” it said. “In recent weeks Mr. Ameri, who spent years in Iran and leads the Badr Corps, a onetime paramilitary arm of the Supreme Council, was one of several senior party members who appeared to be reflecting Iran ’s concerns with a reluctance to endorse the pact,” it noted. “Of course, given the volatile and fractious state of Iraqi politics, the security agreement could still be delayed. But with Iraqis believing that Mr. Obama, as president, would move faster to withdraw American troops, Iraqi and American officials said obstacles to a security agreement appeared to be fading,” the paper said. Jabeer Habeeb, an independent Shiite lawmaker and a political scientist at Baghdad University , put it simply: “Obama’s election shifts Iraq into a new position.” Gen. David H. Petraeus ’s decision to withdraw another combat brigade six weeks ahead of schedule reinforced the assurances by Iraq ’s defense minister that his troops could handle more of Iraq ’s security and sent a signal that the American troop withdrawals would become a reality. “An Obama administration is also expected to shift the focus to Afghanistan . American officials have said that as the war deteriorates in Afghanistan , any additional forces sent there would have to be from among troops withdrawn from Iraq ,” the paper said. Mr. Obama’s election also coincided with the American negotiators’ acceptance of many of the changes Iraqis demanded in the agreement, which created an overall picture that was easier both for the Iraqis and their neighbors — Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia — to accept. “The American negotiators sent a new version of the agreement to Iraqi leaders on Thursday that included many of the changes Iraqis had demanded. In public, Iraqis said merely that they were studying the document,” it said. Over all, however, there was a new tone of optimism. “The atmosphere is positive with the American attempt to preserve the sovereignty of the Iraqi nation,” the government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told the news channel Al Arabiya. He praised the inclusion of a new provision stating that Americans would not launch attacks on Iraq ’s neighbors from Iraqi soil. The Americans also added language to make explicit what kinds of troops would remain after the withdrawal in 2011, said a Bush administration official knowledgeable abou