http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/31/iraq.main/index.html
Iraqi-U.S. security talks worry Shiites and Sunnis
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Some Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders in Iraq -- able to agree on little else -- are united in their opposition to a prospective long-term security agreement between their country's government and the United States.
Shiite demonstrators in Baghdad protest on Friday a possible U.S.-Iraq long-term security agreement.
Many Iraqis suspect it could lead to the establishment of bases, a long-term presence of American troops, and a weakening of Iraqi government control of foreign troops.
Powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has said any such agreement should be put to a popular referendum.
Street demonstrations Friday in several Shiite Baghdad neighborhoods reflected his position. Watch protesters take to the streets »
Al-Sadr's chief Shiite political rival, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said only Iraqis should control Iraq.
"From the beginning, we were and we still insist on the importance of not having any resolution that can challenge our national sovereignty," al-Hakim said.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader in Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc, worries a security agreement could compromise Iraqi sovereignty, which he calls a "red line that should not be bypassed."
"These are bilateral negotiations between two sovereign countries," said U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo. "They are still very much in process. We are determining what will work for us, and the Iraqis are determining what will work for them.
"As with all negotiations, the resulting agreement will have to satisfy the interests of both countries. Our focus is to achieve an agreement that is fully consistent with Iraq's sovereignty."
The countries have not publicly discussed details of the talks. If an agreement is reached, Nantongo said, it "will set the legal framework for the continued drawdown of U.S. troops" and replace the parameters set by the U.N. Security Council mandate that expires in December.
In other developments, a U.S. Marine died Friday in an incident that was not combat-related, and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Baghdad on Saturday for meetings with Iraqi officials.
Kouchner traveled to the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya Saturday morning, according to the French Foreign Ministry.
He will later go to the northern city of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, where he will open a branch office of the French Embassy, the French ministry said.
"It will be an opportunity for the minister to confirm that France is standing by all Iraqi communities in order to help with national reconciliation," the French ministry said.
Kouchner will also meet with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyiar Zebari and other Iraqi officials, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said. |
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