Debate on Iraqi pact ends in scuffles

updated 6:40 p.m. ET Nov. 19, 2008

BAGHDAD - A heated parliamentary debate on the U.S.-Iraq security treaty was called to an early close Wednesday as lawmakers loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr scuffled with security guards for the foreign minister and the speaker of the legislature and his two deputies.

The session was chaotic from the start, with lawmakers shouting at each other. Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani added to the din by repeatedly yelling at legislators to sit down or keep quiet, but failed to restore order.

The turmoil followed the announcement by two small political factions that they would join al-Sadr's supporters in opposing the security pact, which would allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three more years.

The deal is backed by the governing coalition, which holds a majority in parliament, but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is campaigning for help from other blocs in hopes of passing the measure with broader support in a vote by legislators Monday.

The Shiite Fadhila party, which has 15 seats in parliament, said it would vote against the agreement. Saleh al-Mutlaq, leader of a small Sunni Arab bloc with 11 seats, said a U.N. mandate under which U.S. forces are in Iraq should be renewed for six months when it expires Dec. 31 so the government could negotiate a new pact.

Out of order
Sadrist legislators tried to shout down a lawmaker from the ruling Shiite coalition who was reading the treaty's text to the chamber.

When the lawmaker, Hassan al-Sineid, kept reading, Sadrist lawmaker Ahmed al-Massoudi aggressively approached the bench. He appeared to be on the verge of grabbing the document from al-Sineid, seated next to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, when security guards intervened.

Scuffling erupted and then escalated when other Sadrist legislators rushed to help their colleague, prompting the speaker to hurriedly declare the session adjourned until Thursday.

The Sadrists later claimed that al-Massoudi was punched in the face by one of Zebari's guards.

The pact already was approved by al-Maliki's Cabinet, boosting its chances for passage when parliament votes, because the main parties in the governing coalition dominate the body.

But the vocal opposition points to a possibly narrow victory for the government in the vote, which would cast a shadow on the legitimacy of a deal that al-Maliki has said should be approved with a broad consensus. Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said the deal would be acceptable only if approved by a wide margin in parliament.

Voices of dissent
If the measure passes the legislature, it will go to the president and his two deputies for ratification. Each one — President Jalal Talabani and vice presidents Adel Abdul-Mahdi and Tariq al-Hashemi — has the power to veto the agreement.

Shiite coalition parties, which have 85 seats, and the Kurdish bloc, with 54, firmly support the pact, and their votes alone amount to a thin majority. They might also pick up support from smaller parties. However, the position of their Sunni Arab allies, the three-party Iraqi Accordance Front, is less certain and many of those 44 lawmakers might not back the deal.

Lawmakers from Fadhila and al-Mutlaq's group, along with 30 or so seats from al-Sadr's group, amount to 56 dissenting votes.

Some Sunni leaders say the agreement should be put to a vote in a national referendum. Others fault the document for not offering a power-sharing formula that would ensure the full participation of the once-dominant Sunni minority in governing the country.

A modest show of popular support for the agreement was on display Wednesday, when several hundred people staged demonstrations in support of the pact in the mainly Shiite southern cities of Basra, Karbala and Najaf.

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