7 security pact paras need amendment – SIIC official

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Seven paragraphs in the security deal planned to be signed with Washington need to be amended, a key member of Shiite leader Abdelaziz al-Hakim’s Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) said on Sunday. “There is no attitude taken in advance regarding the Iraq-U.S. long-term security pact but there are some paragraphs that have to do with Iraq’s full sovereignty and security that need to be amended,” Sheikh Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, the leader of the SIIC parliamentary bloc, told IraqiNews.com. The Iraqi and U.S. sides have been negotiating over a long-term security agreement to organize the presence of the U.S. army on Iraqi territories as its international mandate is due to expire late this year. “These points have to do with the judicial jurisdiction, prisons, the nature of U.S. mail and the nature of the Iraqi government’s monitoring over it,” Saghir said. AmR (P) 1