By Xinhua,
Baghdad : Iraqi political leaders reviewed latest draft of a long-awaited security agreement that governs the conduct of American troops in Iraq, an official newspaper said on Thursday.
Political leaders of the leading Shiite and Kurdish parties met on Wednesday and discussed the final draft without taking decisions, leaving the door open for other political parties to take part in the debate over the controversial security deal, the state-run al-Sabah newspaper said.
“The political leaders had long discussions about the pact and gave some technical remarks over some points that would need more discussions,” the paper quoted Hassan al-Seneid, a Shiite law maker as saying.
Among those points were, the immunity that would be granted to the American soldiers from Iraqi law and the role of each U.S. an Iraqi troops in military operations, Seneid said.
Seneid also said that the remarks are “neither rejection nor reservation for the draft, because there is a need for all Iraqi factions to take part in the discussions before referring the pact to a vote by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s cabinet or the parliament.”
The newspaper also quoted Ali al-Dabbagh, the government spokesman, as saying on Wednesday that the final deal expects that U.S. troops would leave Iraqi cities by the end of June and withdraw from the country entirely by Dec. 31, 2011, unless the Baghdad government asks some of them to stay for training or security support.
Dabbagh also said that the American troops could face trial before Iraqi courts for major crimes committed off duty.
He said that the government decided that the draft should take its constitutional path through the cabinet and the parliament.