Maliki reshuffles team to negotiate US deal

IRAQ:AT THE current crucial stage in negotiations with the US over an agreement to govern the presence and operations of US troops in Iraq, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has reshuffled his team so it will reflect the tough stance he recently adopted.

According to the London-based pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, Mr Maliki replaced foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurd, as head of the team with national security adviser Muwaffak al-Rubaie, a Shia and member of the premier's Dawa party.

Arab Iraqis, whether Shia or Sunni, do not trust the Kurds who want US forces to stay on in Iraq in order to protect their three-province autonomous region from fellow Iraqis, Turks and Iranians. As part of the price, the Kurds could grant US demands for a vague withdrawal timeline and broad legal immunity for US troops.

Nearly three weeks ago, Mr Zebari announced that an agreement was close. While refusing to give specific dates for full withdrawal, he said that this would depend on conditions on the ground. But a deal was not near and Mr Maliki insists there must be a firm deadline unrelated to security concerns.

This week, in what could have been a bid to rescue Mr Zebari, President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, said the Iraqi team, under Mr Zebari's leadership, had convinced the US to accept the end of 2011 as the deadline for withdrawal instead of 2015, proposed by Washington.

Arab Iraqis have grown increasingly wary of the Kurds.

Last month they rejected the draft elections law, postponing provincial elections set for October. Claiming they constitute the majority in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the Kurds refuse a power-sharing deal with Arabs and Turkomen, and insist that the city and adjacent oilfields should be annexed to the Kurdish region.

This week the Kurdish peshmerga militia refused to hand over the city of Kanaqin, another oil centre, to government troops cracking down on al-Qaeda elements in the northern Diyala province.

The Kurds also want to annex Khanaqin, in spite of resistance by Arabs and Turkomen, and have been prospecting for oil in the area without government sanction.

Meanwhile, Baghdad and Beijing signed a $3 billion (€2.04 billion) agreement to develop a major Iraqi oil field, the first Iraqi contract with a foreign company since the US occupation.

The 20-year deal is a revised version of an arrangement reached between the China National Petroleum Corporation and the ousted regime covering the Ahdab field south of the capital.

China has agreed to carry on this work for a fee rather than on a revenue-sharing basis and is set to construct an electrical plant in the area. Technical service contracts with western firms have stalled because they have conditioned the signing of short-term agreements for upgrading oilfields on preferential treatment in the awarding of major development contracts involving revenue sharing.

In a bid to regain popular credibility with the mass of Shia poor, dissident Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered his followers to observe an "indefinite" ceasefire and warned rogue elements allied to his faction that they would be expelled if they do not obey.

These rogue elements have alienated Sunni and Shia Iraqis by carrying out kidnappings, murders and sectarian cleansing. Mr Sadr first imposed a truce a year ago and extended it repeatedly. Earlier this month, he announced that his Mahdi Army militia would disband as soon as a timetable for the withdrawal of US forces was agreed.

In June, he said most fighters would work in the cultural, educational and welfare fields while a small, elite force would remain armed.