Iran Speaker Urges Iraq to Resist U.S. Pact
The Speaker of Iran’s Parliament spoke out again urging the Iraqi Parliament not to sign the security pact with the United States. Although, Iraqis see the agreement as a step forward from the immovable stance that the Bush administration had been promulgating (“no timetable”), Iran’s concern, of course, is the possibility that Iraq could be used as an outpost of U.S. power.
The text of the pact, though originally allowing for the placement of American military bases in the country after the withdrawal in 2011, has been negotiated by the Iraqi side to remove this clause. This has led judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi to conclude that the pact is in fact a move forward in the occupation. It should be noted that the pact does place the United States mission in the hands of the Iraq government, instead of under the purview of the U.N. Security Council mandate.
Bridget Russell
