Iraqi lawmakers reach compromise on foreign soldiers bill
Iraq's parliament has reached a compromise to approve a resolution allowing all foreign soldiers other than Americans to stay in Iraq until July 2009, an Iraqi lawmaker said. According to the AP, the agreement that was reached Sunday transforms last week's rejected draft law into a parliamentary resolution.
The move allows lawmakers to circumvent strong opposition to the bill by a small number of radical Shiite deputies. Lawmaker Abbas al-Bayati of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance conveyed the resolution will be voted on Monday. Not passing the resolution before a U.N. mandate expires on Dec. 31 would leave those troops without a legal basis to be in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in London, British Defence Secretary John Hutton said the Iraqi parliament's failure to back the bill permitting is only "a minor hiccup." Asked what would happen if no agreement was in place by Dec. 31, Hutton said: "That would be a very serious situation and obviously we couldn't let it happen, but I don't think it will happen."
Speaking on Sky News channel, he stated: "I think this is a minor hiccup...We have contingency plans. The safety of our guys out there is our top priority. "There will have to be an agreement, a proper agreement, before our guys are out on the streets."