By NNN-KUNA,
Baghdad : Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has announced that negotiations with the Americans on a long-term cooperation treaty were “in the last phase.”
Zebari, speaking at a news conference wednesday, indicated that if the two sides could not work out a security agreement, “alternatives could be sought such as a memorandum of understanding or a United Nations resolution to stipulate presence of the foreign forces for another mandate or another year.”
However, such an eventuality will not undermine the whole strategic treaty, he said, indicating at prospects of accords for cooperation at the scientific, trade, political, cultural and economic levels.
“We have made progress in the negotiations on the security treaty between Iraq and the United States and the talks for making the draft are almost finnished,” he said, but added that to finalise the process, certain concessions must be ceded.
The negotiations, launched last Febraury, have revolved around several drafts, the minister said, confirming that the Americans agreed to lift immunity from the foreign security agencies, in addition to a concord on the theme that the Iraqi judiciary should be the authority to refer to in cases of arrest of citizens.