BAGHDAD, Nov 25, (Agencies): The Iraqi parliament’s biggest Sunni bloc said it wanted guarantees of a public referendum on a US security pact before it backed the deal in a vote in parliament on Wednesday. Iraq’s leaders say securing the Iraqi Accordance Front’s blessing for the pact, which paves the way for a US troop withdrawal by the end of 2011, is crucial for consensus.
The security pact replaces a UN mandate governing the US military presence in Iraq, which expires at the end of this year. The current US troop strength is around 150,000. Iraq’s leaders say there is unlikely to be enough time to arrange another vote on the deal if lawmakers reject it. Iraq is also unlikely to be able to organise a public referendum on the issue by year-end.

The Accordance Front said the pact must include a guarantee of a referendum and a package of political reforms that would give lawmakers more say in political decisions. “The situation depends on two issues. The issue of a proposal for political reform, to be voted on in parliament, before the deal is put forward,” said Accordance Front spokesman Salim al-Jubouri. “The second issue is that the pact will guarantee it can be voted on in a referendum,” he added. Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani were holding last-minute talks with most of Iraq’s political blocs to overcome objections, a member of Mashhadani’s office said.

Sunnis are concerned their influence may wane once the Americans leave. Majority Shi’ite Iraq has a Shi’ite leadership and has good ties with neighbouring Iran, a Shi’ite country. On Monday, Iraq’s government spokesman told Reuters there were assurances the Accordance Front would not be excluded from future decisions, and he was confident the pact would pass. Some 136 lawmakers of the ruling Shi’ite and Kurdish blocs in Iraq’s 275-seat parliament are seen as supporting the pact, which needs a simple majority of 138 votes to pass. But Iraq’s leading Shi’ite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, whose approval is crucial because of his status and influence, has said all Iraq’s main communities must agree on the deal.

Minority Sunnis were dominant under former dictator Saddam Hussein and initially associated with the al-Qaeda-inspired insurgency that followed the 2003 US-led invasion.
Sunni tribal chiefs have since turned on al-Qaeda and helped reduce violence, and Sunni politicians rejoined the Shi’ite-led government in July after the Accordance Front had previously quit in a row over power-sharing.
Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told a news conference Iraq needed US military support for some time. Its government has already approved the security deal.
“If the pact is not signed, we will push our country towards an unknown destiny,” he said.
Without the pact, an extension of the UN mandate may have to be sought, which the government is keen to avoid. The pact curbs US powers to arrest Iraqi citizens and conduct military operations, and is seen as a way to safeguard Iraqi sovereignty.
Right now the US forces have control, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said. “Under the pact, the Iraq government is going to control the American forces,” he said.
Negotiations
US State Department adviser David Satterfield, who led the US team that negotiated the deal, was at parliament Tuesday to meet Deputy Speaker Khalid al-Attiyah, a senior Shiite lawmaker who is a key figure in negotiations with the Sunni bloc.
Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, also met with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen Ray Odierno, the top American soldier in Iraq. If parliament passes the deal, the three-man presidency must then ratify it.
A senior Shiite lawmaker involved in the negotiations said the government could only count on the support of 139 legislators — a few above the simple majority. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Two hard-line Iranian newspapers urged Iraq’s parliament Tuesday to reject the pact, a stand that indicates opposition to the pact remains strong among key circles in the Iranian government.
Iran, Washington’s longtime adversary, had for months harshly denounced the pact but toned down its opposition last week after the Iraqi Cabinet approved it. But the daily Jomhuri-e-Eslami warned in an editorial that a popular uprising would erupt in Iraq if parliament approved the deal, while Kayhan, which is run by a representative of Iran’s top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the agreement as a “sellout of Iraq.”

Arrested
The US military says US-backed Iraqi forces have arrested a suspected Shiite militant leader who has been linked to Iran. A statement says the purported “special groups” leader has allegedly been working with Iranian intelligence for three years and helped smuggle weapons, money and information into Iraq. The US military uses the term “special groups” to refer to violent Shiite militia factions.

The statement issued Tuesday says the militant leader and two other suspected extremists were arrested Friday in the southern Iraqi city of Qurna. The US military has accused Iran of stoking violence in Iraq. Tehran denies the charges. The US military says an American soldier has died of noncombat-related causes in Iraq. The military said in a statement released Tuesday that the Multi-National Division — North soldier died a day earlier in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. The statement does not provide any further details pending notification of the soldier’s relatives. At least 4,204 members of the US military have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.