Iraq Cabinet seeks changes to U.S. security pact

Iraq’s Cabinet decided Tuesday to ask the Americans for unspecified changes in the draft security pact that would allow U.S. troops to remain here another three years, despite warnings that it would be hard to reopen negotiations on the agreement.

Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the Cabinet decided amendments were needed to win “national acceptance” for the draft, which must be approved by parliament before the current U.N. mandate expires at the end of this year. Without a new agreement, there would be no legal basis for the U.S.-led military mission.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his ministers spent over five hours reviewing the draft agreement before deciding Tuesday to request changes, al-Dabbagh said. Their decision came two days after al-Maliki’s own Shiite coalition expressed reservations about the accord, hammered out after months of intensive negotiations.

Al-Maliki aide Sami al-Askari said several members of the Shiite coalition wanted to remove language allowing the government to ask U.S. forces to stay beyond the end of 2011 and wanted clarification of some parts of the jurisdiction clause.

The agreement would call for U.S. troops to leave the cities by the end of June and withdraw from the country by Dec. 31, 2011 unless the government asked them to stay. The draft would also provide limited Iraqi jurisdiction over soldiers and contractors accused of major, premeditated crimes committed off post and off duty.