Iraq joins forces against new US ruse

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:25:51


Opposition to the long-term Iraq-US political, economic and security agreement, which is to be endorsed in two months, continues to grow among Iraqis, raising speculation that the deal may not go through.

While the Kurds are believed to be the only Iraqi group to support the agreement and the notion of long-term US military presence in the country, Shias and Sunnis have expressed their strong disapproval of the deal.

Various Iraqi cities, including Baghdad, were the scene of large protests against the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), following last week's Friday prayers. Demonstrators took to the streets upon the call of leading anti-occupation cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Opposition to the agreement, however, is not only limited to al-Sadr and his supporters. The Leader of Iraq's main parliamentary coalition, Seyyed Abdul-Aziz Hakim, has also objected to the binding contract.

Following a meeting between senior members of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), Hakim declared that the country is united in its opposition to articles of the agreement that violate Iraq's sovereignty.

The United Iraqi Alliance leader added that from the very beginning, the SIIC, which is also led by himself, had opposed any agreement that would jeopardize Iraq's sovereignty.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi who heads the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Parliament's largest Sunni bloc, is among the prominent figures in the country to back Hakim.

For Iraqis, sovereignty is a red line not to be crossed, al-Hashimi warned in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Friday.

According to al-Hashimi, many aspects of the agreement directly violate the rights of Iraqis, particularly those given to US forces that enable them to enter or leave the country without Baghdad's supervision as well as the establishment of American military bases on Iraqi soil.

The vice president asserted that granting immunity to US forces and security firms would mean to deprive Iraqi citizens of the support they are entitled to in case they are arrested by Americans.

No Iraqi citizen will accept such an agreement, he affirmed.

Opposition to the security agreement has spread beyond political groups, as many religious leaders and high-ranking Iraqi clerics have taken a clearly critical stance toward the issue.

The country's most revered Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali al-Sistani strongly objected to the accord in a meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday.

The Grand Ayatollah said he would not allow the government to sign such a deal with US occupational forces as long as he is alive.

Another senior Shia cleric, Ayatollah Seyyed Kazem Husseini-Haeri, has also condemned the agreement.

The occupiers want to give immunity to their 'mercenaries and even their dogs' while they themselves will be able to prosecute the Iraqi people and impeach their president, prime minister and parliamentarians, the Ayatollah said on Thursday.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Action Organization is also a fierce critic of the deal.

As July 31st, the date set for the signing of the SOFA agreement, draws closer widespread protests are expected to build up in Iraq.

The Iraqi nation now insists that the government put the contract to a general referendum or at the very least to a parliamentary vote before agreeing to sign it.