Two weeks ago, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and both Vice Presidents Tareq al-Hashemi and Adel Abdel Mahdi issued a statement demanding that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suspend the so-called Support Councils. Today, Maliki announced that he will refuse the...
Current and future Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said today that he supports President-elect Barack Obama's Iraq policy, saying he is now "less concerned" about Obama's campaign promise to have troops out of Iraq within 16 months. Gates spent most of the past two...
Iraq's most influential religious leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has expressed serious concerns about the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States which narrowly passed in Iraq's Parliament on Thursday. Sistani says he believes the United States has...
Thursday's narrow victory for the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Iraq's Parliament has put Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a position of increased power. The Prime Minister has used the US military presence to enhance his own power, and has used President...
With the expiration of the United Nations mandate at the end of December, 13 of the 19 nations that still have military commitments to Iraq are set to bring them to an end by the end of the year. A farewell ceremony for Bosnia's 86 soldiers is scheduled for Saturday,...
A deal yesterday to schedule a referendum for July 30, 2009 on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) may have been instrumental in scoring the vote a narrow victory today in Iraq's Parliament, but the terms of the deal are unlikely to give the referendum the meaning...
Numerous vote delays to allow time for extra politicking, a deal for a referendum next year to placate the major Sunni bloc (the Iraqi Accord Front), and last minute endorsements from the IAF, the National Dialogue bloc, and the Iraqi Communist Party seem like a...
The Iraqi government continues to scramble to get ready for tomorrow's talks on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and tentatively the vote (though it has already been delayed twice this week). It is now being reported that the government has agreed on a demand by...
As heated debate gives way to last minute negotiations, the Iraqi Parliament has delayed today's anticipated vote on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the United States until at least tomorrow. No official explanation was given for the delay, but Iraqi Prime...
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States is scheduled for a vote tomorrow in the Iraqi Parliament, and while Maliki tries to shore up domestic support, he also faces growing concern among Iraq's neighbors about the prospect that the...
