More factions join calls for withdrawal of U.S. troops

 

By Adnan Hussein

 

Azzaman, December 11, 2005

 

A pact of honor, calling, among other things, for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, has been signed in Baghdad.

 

The signatories include “more than 57 political parties and influential tribes in the country,” said Bahaa al-Araji of the Sadr movement which helped drafting the pact.

 

“The groups agreeing to our pact of honor represent all hues of the Iraqi society,” Araji said.

 

He said any government assuming power after the December 15 elections will have to taken the signatories’ demands into account.

 

The Sadr movement, led by the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, wields tremendous power among impoverished Shiite across the country.

 

Among the signatories were Ahmad Jalabi, current deputy prime minister and representatives from influential Shiite and Sunni factions.

 

The pact explicitly calls on the new government to make a clear distinction between “resistance” of foreign troops and “terror.”

 

Araji said the pact “considers resistance a legitimate right but condemns terror, violence, the killing of civilians and kidnapping.”

 

He said the pact also demands “the departure of occupation troops in the light of a specific timetable. The legacy of the occupation troops must be removed and no concession be given to them to set up bases whether temporary or permanent.”

 

On Israel, the pact says any new government must be under obligation no to normalize relations with the Jewish state.

 

The demands in the pact are not binding. However, the pact shows that pressure for the withdrawal of U.S. troops is building in Iraq as well as in the United States.

 

The major factions in the current Shiite coalition have signed the pact and al-Sadr movement is reported to have agreed to join the coalition on the understanding that they will implement it if they win the elections.

 

The pact even calls for the release of what it describes as “the sons of the honorable resistance”, currently raging in Sunni-dominated areas, from both U.S. and Iraqi jails.