Kurdish legislator says SOFA necessary for Iraq’s future

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A Kurdish lawmaker on Saturday said that the security pact between Baghdad and Washington is necessary for the future of Iraq now that Iraqi forces are not yet ready to take care of security. “Some blocs do not have fundamental reservations but fears for the period after the agreement,” Khaled Shawani, a member of parliament from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA), told IraqiNews.com. 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. “There should be deliberations among the blocs to get to know the remarks in order to study them and reach for solutions,” said Shawani, who is also a member of the parliament’s Legal Committee. Shawani’s bloc, headed by Fouad Maasoum, is the second largest with 53 out of a total 275 seats. 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. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani had agreed on Friday evening with the representatives of political blocs on a call to reach consensus over the deal in a way serving Iraq’s higher interests. AmR (S) 1