THE IRAQI government has announced it intends to let voters decide in January whether the departure of US troops should be accelerated.
Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki’s cabinet is submitting a draft law to parliament, asking it to authorise and fund a referendum on the bilateral agreement that regulates the presence of US troops, the government announced. The referendum would be held during January’s national election.
US officials have quietly lobbied the Iraqi government to suspend plans to hold the referendum, because they are all but certain voters would annul the agreement. If that were to happen, US troops would have one year to depart, moving up their targeted December 2011 withdrawal date.
A simple majority opposed to the agreement would be enough to annul it, according to the cabinet’s draft law, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement. When the security agreement was negotiated last year, some lawmakers demanded its implementation on January 1st be followed by a referendum.
The referendum was supposed to happen in July. Any measure to curb American influence in Iraq is likely to appeal to a large segment of the electorate. – (LA Times-Washington Post service)