/.-International News.-/

Iraqi parliament approves security pact with U.S.

The agreement, which must be ratified by the Presidential Council, allows U.S. forces to remain in the country for three more years.

Thursday November 27, 2008 10:16 AP

BAGHDAD .- The Iraqi Parliament today approved a security pact with the United States that allows the continued presence of U.S. forces in the country for three more years.

Under the agreement, U.S. forces will withdraw from the cities before June 30 and throughout the country by January 1, 2012.

The pact was endorsed by the Shiite and Kurdish blocs in the ruling coalition, in addition to the largest Sunni bloc, which demanded concessions in return for their support.

The chairman of parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, said that 220 of the 275 lawmakers who attended the meeting voted in favor of the pact.

The pact still needs the ratification of the Presidential Council, which is taken for granted.

Salim Abdullah, spokesman of the main Sunni bloc, said the agreement he accepted the call of their group and other minors to submit the pact to a national referendum on July 30.This means that, while it approved by Parliament, a vote for the "no" would kill the pact.

The agreement fulfills the goal of making Iraq a specific deadline for the departure of U.S. troops. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said that it is a path to full sovereignty of Iraq.