Deal Pitched on U.S. Troops' Future in Iraq
After holdups, U.S. and Iraqi officials review status of forces draft agreement.
BAGHDAD, Oct. 16, 2008 — -- After months of negotiations, the United States and Iraq have produced a draft agreement outlining how U.S. troops will operate in Iraq, and it is being circulated among the executive branches of both the U.S. and Iraqi governments.
Negotiations on the Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, had been deadlocked for months over disagreements about a timeline for U.S. troop withdrawal and over whether U.S. troops would be subject to Iraqi laws if they commit crimes.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is "comfortable" with the draft agreement, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said, indicating the key hurdle of legal immunity for U.S. troops in Iraq had been overcome -- though he did not reveal details.
However, a senior U.S. official told ABC News the deal would allow for American troops to be tried in Iraqi courts for crimes committed off-base and when not on missions.
The Iraqi government has pressed for lifting the blanket immunity from prosecution in Iraqi courts that U.S. forces currently have in Iraq, should they be involved in crimes. Currently, any offenses are dealt with through the military judicial system.
As for the timeline, the senior U.S. official hadn't seen the exact language but said 2011 is listed as a hard date for withdrawal of troops. However, the source added, the agreement has caveats to account for conditions on the ground and wording that, based on those conditions, the Iraqis could ask the U.S. to keep its forces in Iraq longer with the next U.S. president's approval.
SOFAs are used to define how the American military operates in a foreign country. The United States has status-of-forces agreements with more than 100 nations around the world, including Afghanistan, Germany and Japan.
Gates has made phone calls to senior members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees to advocate for the draft Iraq SOFA, Morrell said.
In addition, Capitol Hill staffers will get briefed by the top U.S. negotiators and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker Friday morning, a senior State Department official told ABC News.
Morrell said that Gates wouldn't be calling lawmakers to support the agreements "if he didn't believe it adequately protected our forces in Iraq in really all facets of their operations there from combat to legal protections."
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., issued a statement Wednesday expressing skepticism about any agreement that might subject American servicemen to Iraqi courts "in the middle of a chaotic war and in the absence of a judicial system that has been proven to be fair and protective of the rights of individuals."
Levin said he awaits a reading of the final text.
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