Sadrists reject U.S.-Iraq security pact

[unhappycamper]

Sadrists reject U.S.-Iraq security pact
By Sameer N. Yacoub - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Nov 7, 2008 11:37:11 EST

BAGHDAD — Clerics tied to the anti-U.S. Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped up calls on Friday for the government to reject a U.S.-Iraqi security pact, a day after Washington delivered what it called a final text of the agreement to the Iraqis.

U.S. and Iraqi officials are scrambling to finalize the security agreement that would remove U.S. soldiers from Iraq’s cities by June 30, and see the last American troops leave the country by 2012.

The Sadrists staunchly oppose the pact and want U.S. forces to leave Iraq immediately and unconditionally.

“We renew our total refusal of the security agreement, and again we demand parliament and government not to sign it,” Sheik Assad al-Nasiri told worshippers in the holy city of Kufa.

In Baghdad’s sprawling Shiite slum of Sadr City, another Sadrist preacher, Sheik Sattar al-Battat, warned the deal infringes on Iraqi sovereignty, and would allow the U.S. to threaten other countries in the region.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/11/ap_iraq_110708/%2e

[dipsydoodle]

1. That was inevitable.

One of their main points is a complete unwillingness to allow the USA to mount attacks on other sovereign states from bases in Iraq. I believe that nothing short of closing the bases will satisfy them.