Lawmakers say vote on SOFA most likely on Wednesday

Iraq-Parliament BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Lawmakers from two different parliamentary blocs said that the vote on the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement is most likely to occur during Wednesday’s session. “The general atmosphere between lawmakers regarding the vote on the deal during tomorrow’s session is positive,” Jalal al-Din al-Saghier, MP from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), told IraqiNews.com. “Without a national consensus we will not reach an agreement regarding a vote on the deal,” he added. He expressed belief that tomorrow will witness a vote on the agreement, noting that the last moments could witness pressures,” he explained. For his part, MP from the foreign relations committee, Jaber Habieb Jaber, said “I expect most blocs to support the deal.” “I expect that a number of blocs to vote for the agreement and everything will be clear tomorrow,” Jaber told IraqiNews.com. “The pact will have a consensus from all Iraqi people’s representatives,” he said. MP from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) Mohsen al-Saadon said “most lawmakers will vote for the agreement tomorrow despite there being some parliamentarians who oppose it.” “We currently need for a majority vote in the voting process, all parliamentary blocs and lawmakers should vote on the agreement so all Iraqi people know that the largest number of lawmakers took part in the voting process,” he pointed out. Parliament will hold a session on Wednesday to vote on the agreement after completing the first and second readings, as well as other discussions over it. The Iraqi cabinet last week had approved with an overwhelming majority of 27 votes to one the security pact 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 will replace a United Nations mandate governing the U.S. presence in Iraq, due to expire on Dec. 31, and has been agreed on by the Bush administration. Under the proposed agreement, U.S. troops will exit Iraqi towns and cities by the middle of 2009, and the entire country by the end of 2011. The law also curbs U.S. powers to detain Iraqi citizens and conduct military operations. SOFA had drawn wide-scale local popular and political controversy after the cabinet endorsed it on last week, 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. SH (I)/SR 1