TribAL leaders in southern Iraq accused the US Administration last week of attempting to establish permanent bases in Iraq to strike against its opposing powers in the region and protect the Israeli entity.
During a conference held in Basra, they demanded the expulsion of the Khalq terrorist organisation from Iraq.
Symbols of rejection and condemnation of the security agreement, continue in Basra, which the US government is trying to enforce in Iraq.
Basra tribes, religious scholars and legal personalities gathered at a conference during which they declared their reservations about the articles of the security agreement.
The participants accused the US Administration of attempting to establish permanent bases in Iraq in order to strike against opposing powers in the region and to preserve its client Israel’s security.
One participant said: ‘I think it (the US) has long term aims to reorganise the situation in the Middle East, for Iraq to be a place, or a base, to strike against the powers it sees as radical or opposing to its policies, such as Iran and Syria, and also to preserve Israeli security and protect its vital interests in the region.’
Another said: ‘Iraqi sovereignty must be preserved, and it must be absolute and complete sovereignty. These forces that will stay in Iraq should not be used to strike against any world countries, especially neighbouring ones.’
The tribal leaders participating in the conference demanded that the Iraqi government expel the Khalq organisation from Iraqi territory.
They also considered any national reconciliation plan to be flawed if this organisation, which took part in attempts to raise sectarian tensions between different sections of the Iraqi people, was not expelled.
A participant said: ‘The priorities for national reconciliation and its support within the Iraqi people lie in the expulsion of this deviant group, because it plays old Ba’athist games, and this is rejected by the Iraqi people.
Another said: ‘We call on the Iraqi government to expel the Khalq organisation from Iraq and we always agree with the parliament, because the parliament represents the voices and the majority of Iraqi people.’
Popular and official circles in most Iraqi provinces oppose the security agreement with the US Administration because of what it implies in the explicit violation of Iraqi sovereignty and security.
Public and official conferences continue, in Basra, to become a daily practice in an expression of the rejection of the security agreement and the demand to expel the Khalq organisation from Iraqi territory.
Meanwhile, Iraqi puppet Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s has announced that he intends to ‘end the issue of awakening councils in Iraq’ this year.
Qasim Ata, spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command has taken out warrants for the arrest of some awakening members and said the government plans to integrate 13,000 into security services.
An Iraqi Army official in Babil Governorate, south of Baghdad, announced that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki issued his directives to end the issue of the awakening councils in northern Babil and the rest of Iraq during this year.
Abd-al-Amir Kamil, commander of the Iraqi Army’s 31st Brigade, said that the number of the awakening council members in north Babil amounts to almost 8,000 fighters, some of whom will be integrated into the security services, whereas the rest of them will be discharged.
Layth al-Abdallah, a leader of the Popular Committees in Diyala, said that large numbers of the Popular Committees members will be integrated into the Iraqi police forces soon.
He added that a committee headed by an officer from the Diyala Operations Command and Sa’d Challub, member of the Reconciliation Committee, has started receiving the files of the Popular Committees members from Buhruz, Al-Tahrir, Saray, and Ba’qubah al-Jadidah who signed contracts with the US forces, noting that the US forces will stop paying their salaries as of next October, after which the Iraqi Government will be responsible for paying these salaries.
Basim al-Hasani, MP for the Al-Fadilah Bloc, said that the political blocs should not incorporate the constitutional Article 140 on Kikruk into the Provisional Council Election Law.
In press statements, Al-Hasani added that solving the issues of Kirkuk and Article 140 of the Constitution through the election of governorate councils is not right and outside the law, noting that local elections will probably be held at the beginning of next year as the political blocs have thus failed to reach a reconciliatory solution.
Massive demonstrations have been staged all over Al-Sadr City in protest against the visit made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Iraq, and in rejection of the US-Iraqi security agreement, which was described by Friday preachers in Iraq as vague.
After the talk about the long-term Iraqi agreement with the US side diminished as a result of the official and popular pressures exercised to reject it, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice troubled the waters last week in her surprise visit to Baghdad with the aim of activating the articles of the agreement.
This prompted clerics to emphasise their rejection of the agreement during the Friday sermons they delivered in various areas in Iraq, calling at the same time on the political blocs that reject the agreement to hold on to their positions.
Sayyid Sattar al-Battat, leader in Al-Sadr Trend, said: ‘We reiterate our rejection of the visit of Condoleezza Rice who came to put the final touches to the vague security agreement, about which Iraqis do not know anything.’
While clerics objected to the visit of Rice, some of the deputies also took part with the citizens in a massive demonstration to express their rejection of any agreement that harms the sovereignty of Iraq.
Shaykh Sulayman al-Murayhi, media spokesman for Al-Sadr Trend, said: ‘Millions of the citizens of Iraq in general, and the residents of Al-Sadr City in particular, came to express their condemnation of the ominous visit of the US secretary of state.
Falah Shanshal, member of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, representing Al-Sadr Trend, said: ‘We came here to express our rejection of this agreement and we call for achieving complete independence and sovereignty of Iraq.
‘After achieving complete independence and sovereignty, we will have other stances to announce because we are still under occupation.
‘No party whatsoever has the right to sign an agreement except after liberating Iraq from the occupation.’
