MP criticizes “gaps” in SOFA

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: An independent lawmaker on Saturday said the Iraq-U.S. security pact contains some “gaps,” the most serious of them is the absence of an item binding the Americans to protect Iraqi funds via the UN Security Council (UNSC). “Items in the agreement that provide for a set date for the exit of U.S. forces, the need for their gradual withdrawal, lifting immunity of foreign [security] firms and Iraq’s exit from Chapter VII of the UN Charter are, however, steps in the direction of Iraq’s restoring its sovereignty,” Hamid Majid Moussa, the leader of the Iraqi Communist Party (ICP), said during a parliamentary session today. The Iraqi cabinet on Sunday had approved with an overwhelming majority of 27 votes to one the security deal between Iraq and the United States, also known as the status of forces agreement (SOFA), and was referred to parliament for voting. SOFA should legalize the presence of U.S. forces on Iraqi territories after the end of this year, when the deadline given for a UN Security Council mandate for the U.S. army to intervene in Iraq is scheduled to expire. SOFA had drawn wide-scale local popular and political controversy after the cabinet endorsed it on Sunday, particularly from the Sadrist bloc of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. In accordance with the Iraqi constitution, SOFA cannot be effective before the parliament approves it. AmR (S) 1