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June 5th,
2008 - US Ambassador Says no Permanent Bases in Iraq |
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US Ambassador Says
no Permanent Bases in Iraq By Anne Gearan Associated Press June 5, 2008 Washington - The Bush
administration is not trying to set up permanent military bases in Iraq, even
surreptitiously, the diplomat leading tense talks with Iraq said Thursday. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker
rejected the notion that the legal and military agreements he wants this year
are blueprints for an everlasting American military presence inside Iraq. "It is not going to be
forever," he told reporters at the State Department. Crocker addressed
suspicions, including among many Iraqis, that the Bush administration is
trying to wrap up deals for an indefinite military presence in Iraq that the
next U.S. president could not undo. "There isn't going to
be an agreement that infringes on Iraqi sovereignty," and the military
agreement will have a provision for periodic review and renewal, as do
similar agreements with other countries, Crocker said. The deals would establish a
long-term security relationship between Iraq and the United States, and a
legal basis to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the
end of the year. Negotiations are intense,
particularly over the longevity of military bases, control of Iraqi airspace
and the legal status of civilian contractors such as the Blackwater security
guards involved in a deadly confrontation that killed 17 Iraqi civilians last
September. Public critics in Iraq worry
the deal will lock in American military, economic and political domination of
the country. Iraqis also widely view the U.S. insistence that American troops
continue to enjoy immunity under Iraqi law as an infringement on national
sovereignty. "The Americans have
some demands that the Iraqi government regards as infringing on its
sovereignty," lawmaker Haidar al-Abadi said this week. "This is the
main dispute, and if the dispute is not settled, I frankly tell you there
will not be an agreement." Crocker said the deals will
not contain secret provisions, and will be "transparent" for both
Iraqis and Americans. He said there is no attempt to use any legal or
semantic sleight of hand. "This will be a serious
negotiation and there aren't going to be any efforts to play around with
words on this," he said. Control of Iraq's airspace
is gradually being handed to Iraq as its capabilities improve, Crocker said. He hopes to complete the
overarching security deal by the end of July and the military agreement by
the end of the year, when a U.N. mandate for a foreign military presence in
Iraq expires. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hcWJu9bbzrJZ7uNHjvMn0BuTGqHQD91417D0C |