| 2008: Iraq and Washington reaching compromises |
|
June 18, 2008 Iraqi foreign minister Hoshiyar Zebari says the negotiations over the long term strategic agreement between Washington and Baghdad is making progress due to the positive response the American side showed to the Iraqi demands, but also pointed that the two are still at odds on some issues. In an interview with Wall street Journal issued on Tuesday, Foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, who is visiting Washington, stated that U.S officials had shown compromises through giving up their demands about the private security companies’ immunity and forming an Iraqi-U.S centre which would take care about scrutinizing the future missions of U.S forces in Iraq. And the Iraqi side in turn, has shown acceptance to allow U.S control the Iraqi airspaces, Zebari was quoted by the paper as saying. Iraqi government and U.S are engaged in detailed negotiations to draft a strategic long term agreement between the two countries, and the agreement is due to be signed by the end of next month. But as the Iraqis claim the negotiations has triggered due to demands by the U.S side that would violate Iraqi state sovereignty. Zebari told the paper Iraqi side has also gave up from its demand to commit the U.S take the responsibility of protecting Iraq from the internal and foreign threats. “In case of an internal coup or Iranian invasion, U.S would only provide Iraqi forces with logistic and intelligence support, not necessarily taking part in battles” Zebari added. But the Iraqi minister admitted that there were disputes still stand between the two sides, which were mainly about the number of U.S bases in Iraq, U.S forces’ independency to arrest any Iraqi they consider a threat and the deadline for signing the deal. |