Iraqi PM defends deal with U.S. in televised speech

Iraq’s prime minister went on national television Tuesday to defend a security pact with the United States that keeps U.S. forces in Iraq through 2011 and assure neighbors that Iraqi territory would not be used to attack them.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that he had concerns about the agreement, but said it was a step toward full Iraqi sovereignty once the last U.S. soldier leaves.

“I say to you with complete honesty that we have reservations about the agreement. But we at the same time see it as a solid prelude to the restoration of Iraq’s full sovereignty in three years’ time,” al-Maliki said.

“I assure you that there are no secret clauses or annexes in the agreement, nor permanent military bases in Iraq,” he said. “Iraq will never be a conduit or a staging ground for an attack on any other nation.”

In the pursuit of a good deal for Iraq, he said, negotiations with the Americans repeatedly hit snags. The negotiations, he said, were “complex and difficult.”