Iraq’s Nasserites warn of SOFA passing “consequences”

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Nasserite Socialist Party on Saturday warned of the “consequences” of passing the long-term security pact with the United States, appealing to “Iraqi national powers rejecting the occupation” to render the agreement a failure. “The party condemns the agreement that is prolonging the U.S. occupation and warns of its grave consequences on Iraq’s destiny in particular and the Arab nation’s in general,” according to a statement by the party’s secretariat as received by IraqiNews.com. The Iraqi parliament on Thursday had approved with a majority of 149 votes to 35 the security pact between Baghdad and Washington, also known as the status of forces agreement (SOFA). The 35 votes that rejected the agreement were those of the Sadrist bloc, or members of parliament loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, plus six others who considered SOFA as undermining the sovereignty of Iraq. The party considered the passing of SOFA as a “collective sin perpetrated by the voters, the absent members and the abstainers against the Iraqi people and the nation”. The Nasserites are a party that found an example and a liberation ideologue in late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel-Nasser. AmR (P) 1