Iraqi council gives final approval to U.S. pact

updated 11:13 a.m. ET Dec. 4, 2008

BAGHDAD - Iraq's three-member presidential council on Thursday approved a security pact with the United States setting out a three-year timeframe for the full withdrawal of American troops, a spokesman said.

The final legal hurdle to the deal was cleared even as Iraqis faced another round of bombings in a deadly week as insurgents try to chip away at recent security gains.

Two suicide bombers in explosives-laden trucks took aim at police stations in the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 100, Iraqi officials said.

Near a checkpoint in Mosul, two American soldiers were killed and nine civilians wounded by a suicide attack, Lt. Col. Dave Doherty said.

U.S. hails 'remarkable achievement'
The presidential council's decision marked the final step for the agreement, which will replace a U.N. mandate that expires on Dec. 31.

White House press secretary Dana Perino welcomed the Iraqi presidential council's approval. She called the agreement a "remarkable achievement for both of our countries."

Perino called the pact a landmark agreement that will guide the U.S. relationship with Iraq and help solidify Iraq's democratic gains.

The U.S. Embassy and the military "will begin immediately to implement these two agreements with our Iraqi partners," Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, said in a statement.

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They also promised to support Iraq's request to the U.N. Security Council to continue protection of Iraqi assets.

"And we look forward, under these agreements, to the continued reduction in U.S. forces and the normalization of bilateral relations as two sovereign and co-equal nations," the statement said.

Iraq's parliament signed off on the deal last week after months of tough talks between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators that at times seemed on the point of collapse. The entire process has been fraught with hardscrabble dealmaking between ethnic and sectarian groups.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his two deputies Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, and Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, signed the accord at their headquarters in Baghdad, council spokesman Nasser al-Ani told The Associated Press.

Concessions
The agreement provides a legal basis for American troops in Iraq after the expiration of the U.N. mandate, but it includes the caveat that it should go before voters in a referendum to be held by the end of July, when the deal will already be in effect.

That was a concession to Sunni demands and means the deal could be rejected next year if, for example, anti-U.S. anger builds and demands for an immediate withdrawal grow. By that time, however, U.S. troops will likely have left urban areas and will be a less intrusive presence.

Under the deal, U.S. forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30 and the entire country by Jan. 1, 2012.

Iraq also will gain strict oversight over the nearly 150,000 American troops now on the ground, representing a step toward full sovereignty for Iraq and a shift from the sense of frustration and humiliation that many Iraqis feel at the presence of American troops on their soil for so many years.

Followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr opposed the measure, demanding an immediate withdrawal, and the Shiite leader has called for peaceful protests against the continued presence of American forces in Iraq.

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