Sadrists reject security pact day after response from U.S.
Clerics tied to the anti-U.S. Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped up calls on Friday for the government to reject a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, a day after Washington delivered what it called a final text of the agreement to the Iraqis.
U.S. and Iraqi officials are scrambling to finalize the security agreement that would remove U.S. soldiers from Iraq’s cities by June 30, and see the last American troops leave the country by 2012.
The Sadrists staunchly oppose the pact and want U.S. forces to leave Iraq immediately and unconditionally.
The pact also faces opposition from non-Sadrist Shiites linked to the country’s most influential Shiite leader — Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
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Last month, the Iraqi Cabinet proposed amendments to the pact that included a demand for expanded Iraqi legal authority over U.S. soldiers and the removal of language that could allow U.S. forces to stay past 2012.
Iraq also sought an explicit ban on the use of Iraqi soil for attacks against the country’s neighbors, like last month’s U.S. raid on Syria.
