Iraq non-US troop vote - BBC News

[Yrys]

Iraq non-US troop vote postponed

A vote in the Iraqi parliament on a resolution that would allow non-US
forces to remain in the country after the end of the year has been
postponed.

Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani called for the delay after some MPs
demanded his resignation over a separate matter.

Failure to resolve the issue before the troops' current UN mandate runs
out on 31 December would mean they had no legal basis to stay in Iraq.
Parliament may reconvene to vote on the issue on Tuesday.

On Saturday, MPs rejected a bill which would have given the 6,000 non-US
troops that legal basis. A compromise was reached to vote on a resolution -
which requires only a simple majority of MPs to be passed. But the session
of parliament was postponed amid the row over the speaker.

Shia and Kurdish lawmakers want him to resign after he failed to control a
shouting match over the journalist who threw his shoes at President George
W Bush, the Associated Press news agency said.

Bilateral deals

Iraq's governing parties had been optimistic that the resolution would be
passed.

The US has already struck a separate security pact to keep troops in Iraq to 2011.
The UK says it plans to withdraw all but 400 of its 4,100 troops from Iraq by
the end of July. Australia, Estonia, Romania and El Salvador also have small
contingents in Iraq.

The resolution would authorise the Iraqi government to sign separate bilateral
deals with each nation which would give them the legal protection their troops
need to remain beyond the end of the year, the BBC's Caroline Wyatt reports
from Baghdad. It is a way of avoiding another rejection of the draft law, our
correspondent adds.

Some MPs said they had rejected the draft because its terms were not as
strict as the pact governing US forces agreed this month. Others, loyal to
the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr, said they wanted the foreign troops
to leave Iraq when the UN mandate ends.

There was also some confusion in the 275-member assembly about what
was being voted on, after an earlier rowdy session of parliament was
suspended, our correspondent adds.

Earlier in the week, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the UK
planned to withdraw its troops from southern Iraq by the end of July 2009,
as envisaged by the draft law. Military operations will conclude in May and
the vast majority of UK troops  will then leave. About 400 personnel will
remain to train Iraqi forces, including the navy.

US troops will be moved to Basra, where the bulk of the UK troops have been stationed.

NON-US FORCES IN IRAQ
UK - 4,100
Australia - 1,000
Romania - 500
El Salvador - 200
Estonia - 40

 

[Yrys]

Iraqi MPs back foreign troop deal

Iraqi MPs have authorised the government to sign agreements allowing British
and other non-US troops to stay on in the country after 2008. They approved
the move after speaker Mahmoud Mashhadani resigned at the demand of
Shia and Kurdish parties, ending a political impasse.

The US earlier struck its own security pact to keep troops in Iraq to 2011.
Foreign troops' UN mandate runs out on 31 December, after which they
require a new legal basis to be in Iraq. Most of the non-US foreign troops
currently deployed in Iraq are British. The British troops are due to leave
Iraq by the end of July next year, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said
last week.

Other foreign, non-US troops include Australians and Romanians. El Salvador
announced on Tuesday it would end its military presence in Iraq on 31
December. Salvadorean President Elias Antonio Saca pointed to the "lack of
a UN resolution" as the reason for withdrawing the 200-strong contingent.

British relief

Tuesday's vote ends a week of uncertainty over the legal status of British,
Australian and other foreign troops in Iraq, BBC defence correspondent
Caroline Wyatt reports from Basra. Reza Jawad Taqi, an MP from the main
pro-government Shia bloc, told the BBC the resolution had been passed by
an overwhelming majority in the Iraqi parliament.

That should clear the way for the Iraqi government to sign bilateral deals
with Britain and the other nations whose troops will be staying on in Iraq
into next year, our correspondent says. She adds that the passing of the
resolution will come as a relief to the British government and the UK's armed
forces, who would have faced a legal limbo over their right to remain in Iraq
to complete their mission had the agreement not been voted in on time.

'World's worst parliament'

Turmoil over the speaker had led to a vote on the extension of the mandate
- scheduled for Monday - being postponed. Mr Mashhadani had been under
pressure to quit since failing to control a shouting match over the journalist
who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush earlier this month.

"I announce that I'm resigning from my position as parliament speaker in
the interests of the people," he said in a speech to MPs. The outgoing speaker,
a member of the Sunni minority, has long been a controversial figure, blaming
many of Iraq's troubles on the US military presence. But when MPs debated
the shoe incident, he enraged Shia and Kurdish lawmakers by using crude
language and describing Iraq's assembly as "the worst parliament in the world".
This week he also insulted two female Iraqi MPs.

Meanwhile, the journalist arrested after the attack on Mr Bush is due to go
on trial on 31 December, his brother and a judge said. Muntadar al-Zaidi
is accused of "aggression against a foreign head of state" over the 14 December
incident.