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Cleric Bows Out Of Troop Treaty

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 11, 2008

BAGHDAD - Iraq's prime minister said Friday that the country's most influential Shiite cleric will leave the decision on the future of U.S. troops to the government and parliament, a step that could remove a major obstacle to a deal.

Tension rose in the Iraqi capital Friday as a car bomb killed 13 people in a Shiite enclave and thousands of Shiites marched to mourn a lawmaker's assassination that their leaders blamed on the Americans.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, journeyed Friday to the Shiite holy city of Najaf to brief Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani about the progress in talks with the United States on a security agreement governing operations of American forces starting next year.

Al-Sistani's earlier insistence that only elected officials draft Iraq's first constitution after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein forced the United States to change its blueprint for the country's transition to democratic rule. Al-Sistani also pressured the Americans to agree to the first post-Saddam elections in January 2005, even though many U.S. officials thought the country was too unstable for meaningful balloting.

American and Iraqi officials have said they are close to an agreement that would replace the U.N. mandate for U.S. forces in Iraq; the mandate expires Dec. 31. The most contentious issue, legal jurisdiction and immunity for U.S. troops under Iraqi law, remains unresolved.

The Associated Press

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