Govt. hastily approved SOFA – Sadr City residents

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Local residents in Sadr City, eastern Baghdad, viewed that the Iraqi government has “hastily” approved the long-term security pact with Washington, with some of them foreseeing a “split” among the political parties over the controversial deal. Shakir al-Saadi, a 54-year-old retired employee, said it was expected that the government would approve the deal. “The government has sent signals to the people but we just did not expect it to approve it so soon,” Saadi told IraqiNews.com. He said the government should have waited to gain more time so that accordance would be obtained over the agreement, now that there are parties within the political process that call for its rejection altogether. “Those parties’ views should have been taken into consideration,” he stressed. An Iraqi government spokesman had said that the cabinet approved the status-of-forces agreement (SOFA) with a majority of 27 votes to one. Ali al-Dabbagh had said that the cabinet approved the pact in an extraordinary several hours’ session held on Sunday and referred it to parliament. Objecting the endorsement, a spokesman for Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc had said on Monday that the government’s approval on the security pact between Iraq and the United States is “meaningless”. “This approval is meaningless because the agreement will be rejected by the parliament,” Ahmed al-Massoudi said in statements to IraqiNews.com. The Iraqi and U.S. sides have been negotiating a long-term security deal during the past months. The pact should determine the legal framework for the U.S. presence in Iraq after the end of this year, when the international mandate granted by the UN Security Council to the U.S. army to intervene in Iraq is due to expire. Ismail al-Difaie, a 49-year-old blacksmith, said the agreement could cause a split among members and non-members of the political process. “The people have not got acquainted with its items although it is mainly concerning the people not the government,” Difaie said. Ma’an al-Ta’ie, 50, said the deal would most likely be passed by parliament, adding there are some parties who are seeking this deal because they believe that it would protect Iraq from neighboring countries. “The officials concerned with the agreement have to do their best to achieve as much gains as possible for the Iraqi people,” Ta’ie, a teacher, said. He pointed out that politicians must cast their differences aside and start to accelerate building the security and military forces. AmR (S) 3