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Maandag, 9 Juni, 2008

Door Deborah Haynes in Bagdad | De Amerikaanse troepen in Irak tot hun basissen en privé veiligheidswachten worden beperkt onderworpen aan lokale wet als Irak zijn manier in onderhandelingen met de V.S. over het toekomstige statuut van Amerikaanse krachten krijgt.

Volgens een hogere Iraakse ambtenaar, werden de onderhandelingen tussen de twee bondgenoten onlangs zo beladen dat President Bush persoonlijk tussenbeide kwam om de situatie onschadelijk te maken. Op Donderdag telefoneerde hij Nouri al-Maliki, de Iraakse Eerste Minister, om hem te verzekeren dat Washington niet tot doel had om de soevereiniteit van Irak te ondermijnen en dat Amerika om het even welk controversieel deel van de overeenkomst opnieuw in overweging zou nemen.

Het huidige mandaat van de Verenigde Naties voor de troepen van de V.S. verloopt begin dit jaar en Washington wil een bilateraal akkoord met Bagdad voor de toekomstige plaatsing van de krachten van de V.S. sluiten. Er zijn net iets meer dan 150.000 troepen van de V.S. in Irak dat op scores van basissen over het land, van weinig 30 mensenbuitenposten aan het uitspreiden zich kampen leeft die vaak rond oude Iraakse legerbarracks worden gebouwd.

Het werk van de bouw in de loop van de afgelopen vijf jaar heeft deze basissen in kleine steden van aanhangwagens, hangaars en ontploffingsmuren veranderd, die met Pizza Hut, starbucks-Stijl koffiewinkels, bioskopen en zwembaden worden uitgerust.

Onder litany van plakken-punten die is het statuut van krachtenovereenkomst (BANK) omringen tussen de twee landen Iraakse zorgen over de hoeveel V.S. de basissen in het land zullen blijven en wie in controle van Iraakse luchtruimte zal zijn.

Andere ontvlammingspunten omvatten of de privé veiligheidsbedrijven die voor de krachten van de V.S. werken van immuniteit van Iraakse wet zullen blijven genieten en of de militairen van de V.S. de vrijheid zullen handhaven te reizen waar zij willen, mensen arresteer en invallen zonder eerste het bereiken goedkeuring van de Iraakse Overheid leid.

Ali al-Dabbagh, de Iraakse overheidswoordvoerder, zei dat onder de nieuwe overeenkomst de V.S. de militairen tot de grotere basissen zouden moeten worden beperkt. „Wij wensen de Amerikanen om de steden te verlaten en de straten,“ hij zei. „Zij moeten daar in de rug zijn en. . . in hun kampen. Wanneer wij hen vragen zullen zij klaar zijn te steunen en te helpen.“

Zoals voor privé veiligheidsbedrijven, „zij zouden aan Iraakse wet“ onderworpen moeten zijn, M. bovengenoemde al-Dabbagh. The immunity of such firms that work for the military or the British or American embassies triggered outrage last year after security guards employed by Blackwater, the largest private security company in Iraq, were involved in a confrontation that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

A status of forces agreement takes on average more than a year to conclude, but Washington hopes to seal the deal with Iraq by the end of July – a time-frame that the Iraqi side views with less importance than the content of the accord.

Sanctioning the continuing presence of US troops is hugely sensitive, with many Iraqis opposed to such a move. Iran has also voiced concern that the deal will enable Washington to use Iraq as a launch pad to conduct attacks in the region. Mr al-Maliki used a weekend trip to Tehran to try to calm the tensions. “We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and [other] neighbours,” he said.

The Iraqi Prime Minister will need to tread carefully to win the backing of his parliament for the pact and also ensure that the US side is satisfied.

Britain, which will have to sign its own bilateral accord with Iraq to legalise the presence of British troops in the country post2008, is watching the discussions with interest. London will use the US-Iraq arrangements for its own agreement.

The senior Iraqi official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the chief concern is that Iraq’s sovereignty is protected.

“President [Bush] has been in touch with the Prime Minister of Iraq and has said that the issues which are rejected or not approved by the Government of Iraq will be reconsidered and the future American presence will be for assisting and coordinating with the Iraqi Government,” he told The Times about the conversation, which took place last Thursday.

A senior US official in Baghdad said that such conferences between the two leaders were fairly frequent. “[Mr Bush] has assured Prime Minister al-Maliki consistently we respect Iraq’s sovereignty. The content, the positions we take in the negotiations, will reflect that,” the official said.

US diplomats have been meeting their Iraqi counterparts for the past two months to draw up the status of forces document as well as a strategic framework, which sketches out every aspect of the two countries’ relationship from security, politics and the economy to culture, science and education.

As part of the process, several Iraqi delegates are due to return this week from a fact-finding trip to some of more than 80 countries, including Japan, Turkey and Singapore, with which the United States already has a status of forces accord.

The Iraq-US pact, while based on the same principles of two sovereign nations, will differ slightly because of the need for US forces to be able to fight.

“The general premise though is that they operate in a manner which reflects respect for, acknowledgement of Iraqi sovereignty and ultimately an Iraqi decision,” the US official said.

See More:Iraq World News 

Have Your Say: Iraq Tells US It Wants Troops Back in Barracks
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This entry was posted on Monday, June 9th, 2008 at 3:02 pm and is filed under War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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