BAGHDAD, Nov 22, (Agencies): Iraq’s defence minister warned on Saturday that the Gulf would be infested by pirates and Iraq left at risk of attack by its neighbours if US forces leave the country too soon. “Coalition forces are currently protecting the Gulf, and our navy will not receive its first ships until April 2009,” Abdel Qader Jassem Mohammed al-Obeidi told a press conference in Baghdad. If those forces “withdraw precipitously, our gulf will become like the Gulf of Aden, where there have been 95 acts of piracy,” he said. Obeidi was addressing journalists on his support for the controversial military pact that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011, a deal now being considered by the Iraqi parliament. The minister did not enlarge on his remarks or explain how the Gulf would become prey to pirates when one of its littoral states, Bahrain, is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet.

The Gulf, which supplies the bulk of world oil imports, is also bordered by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran, all of whose navies patrol the waterway. Somali-based pirates have in recent months been plaguing shipping in the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa. Obeidi also said Iraqi territory risks being attacked by neighbouring states, referring to Turkey’s bombing of Turkish Kurdish PKK rebels in their mountain hideaways of northern Iraq.

“Today, Iraq is the target of bombing from abroad but it is limited because the (US-led) coalition represents a dissuasion force,” he said. “If it not there any more, the whole country risks being the target of shooting, even (the southern port of) Basra, and they will justify their actions by referring to information on a PKK base there,” the minister said. Obeidi also said his country has turned into “a battleground for different foreign intelligence services,” without naming any countries. “Iraqi security forces, backed by the coalition, must impose a limit on their activities, of which Iraqis are the victims,” the defence minister added.

Debate
Meanwhile, Iraq’s parliament is to vote on Wednesday after many hours of often stormy debate on a pact with Washington that would see US forces leave the war-torn country by the end of 2011, its speaker said. The government is confident of the pact’s approval by a simple majority despite angry opposition from some MPs. “The debate has finished and the vote will take place on Wednesday,” speaker Mahmud Mashhadani said after a seven-hour session on Saturday during which about 40 MPs expressed their views. If the three main blocs, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, can agree a joint position, the vote could even take place before Wednesday, he added.

On Saturday, in the third reading since last Monday, Kurds spoke out about differences they have with the government while Sunni and Shiite MPs appeared divided amongst themselves on the proposed Status of Forces Agreement. “Errors were committed during the negotiations which were conducted without transparency and with neither parliament nor the people being kept informed,” said a leader of the 53-member Kurdish Alliance parliamentary faction. His comments could put at risk the group’s previous support for the agreement.

“As a Kurd I think settling the problems of Kurdistan is more important than the deal and we must find a consensus on internal matters as it is the unity of Iraqi people which will force the United States to enforce the pact,” he added. The two main Kurdish parties are upset by the formation of tribal Support Councils at the initiative of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, saying he wants to create his own militias to tighten Baghdad’s grip on ethnically-mixed regions. Iraq’s presidential council demanded on Friday that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki suspend pro-government tribal councils so their legality could be reviewed amid an escalating quarrel over them.

“We demand that you intervene to order a halt to the work of these councils until there is agreement about them, in order to provide administrative and legal cover for them,” the council said in a letter posted on its website. The so-called Support Councils have already drawn fire from Iraq’s two main Kurdish parties, who earlier this month accused Maliki of creating his own militias to consolidate Baghdad’s grip on ethnically mixed regions. But the council statement — coming from Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi, could set the stage for a wider political brawl over the groups. The council has a veto power over all laws ratified by parliament.

Attack
Kurdish rebels claimed responsibility on Saturday for a bomb attack on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline which halted Iraq oil exports to Turkey, according to the Firat news agency, which has close links to the rebels. A section of the pipeline in southeast Turkey was still ablaze after Friday night’s attack but the fire was under control, a Turkish energy ministry source told Reuters.

Iraq’s Oil Ministry spokesman said Baghdad expected the pipeline to be reopened in a week and that loadings at Ceyhan would not be affected. Firat reported the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants as saying the sabotage attack caused extensive damage. Oil exports were halted after the blast and the Turkish Energy Ministry source said the timing of repairs and reopening would only become clear once the fire had been extinguished. “The fire is continuing but as of this morning it has been brought under control,” the source said.

Grave
Iraqi police say they have discovered a mass grave containing the remains of at least 10 people south of Baghdad. Col Ali al-Zahawi says local police unearthed the bodies Saturday in a field near Latifiyah, 20 miles (30 kms) south of the capital. He says the victims’ hands were bound and they had been shot in the head, execution-style. Al-Zahawi says authorities believe the people were killed about two years ago by al-Qaeda in Iraq. On Wednesday, a mass grave was found in a Shiite neighborhood in Baghdad. Iraqi authorities say the remains of at least 15 people were removed.

Released
Meanwhile, US forces released an Iranian construction official seized in Baghdad on suspicion of belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and smuggling weapons to Iraqi militias, an Iraqi official said on Saturday. US forces arrested Nader Qorbani at Baghdad airport on Tuesday and put out a statement the following day saying a man had been arrested who was a member of Iran’s Qods Force, a unit of the Revolutionary Guards. They said he was wanted for smuggling weapons to militias but did not specify whether Iraqi or US forces had seized him. The statement said he was operating under the cover of an organisation that repairs Shi’ite holy sites and that he had also been seized with an “unspecified quantity of cocaine.”