Moqtada Al Sadr vows to rid Iraq of US troops

Baghdad: Iraqi politicians face the contentious question this year of whether to ask US troops to stay beyond the end-of-2011 deadline for their departure.

That decision has become far more complicated with the return to Iraq of anti-American cleric Moqtada Al Sadr.

The future of US troops in Iraq was a topic of talks between Vice-President Joe Biden and Iraqi leaders Thursday during the first visit by a senior US official since Iraq's new government was formed.

The case for an extension centres around concerns that Iraqi forces may not be ready to keep security.

Many Sunnis want US troops to stick around for their protection, fearing domination by the Shiite majority.

Kurds see the Americans as a guarantee of their autonomous region in the north. And some in the party of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki also want the US forces to stay.

But Al Sadr, a Shiite who came home last week from nearly four years in voluntary exile in Iran, is a formidable obstacle.

He immediately put the government on notice that he and his movement, which is a pivotal member of the ruling coalition, will not tolerate any lingering American troop presence.

Pledge to expel

"We heard a pledge from the government that it will expel the occupier, and we are waiting for it to honour its word," he said during a speech.

No decision on an extension will come at least until Al Maliki has chosen a defence minister.

If Iraq requests an extension, the overriding question will be whether Al Sadr is willing to risk bringing down the government over it.

Under a deal agreed upon in 2008, the approximately 47,000 American troops still in the country must leave by the end of 2011.

Privately, many in Iraq and the US long assumed that the two sides would renegotiate for an American troop presence in some form past that deadline.

Iraq's top military commander has said US troops should stay until Iraq's security forces can defend its borders — which he said could take until 2020.

The US officially doesn't rule out an extension. Biden told American troops Thursday that the US should make sure Iraq's stability and democracy were strong enough to make it "a country that was worthy of the sacrifices" American troops had undergone.

Train and equip

He also said the US would continue to train and equip Iraqi forces beyond 2011, highlighting the continued uncertainty about the future of America's troop presence.

An aide to Biden said the vice president reiterated Washington's longtime position that the US would listen to any request by the Iraqi government for troops to stay longer but that Baghdad has not asked. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

Biden met Thursday with Al Maliki, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and other officials, but not with Al Sadr, in keeping with long-standing practice on both sides.

The topic had been sidelined for most of the past year, with Iraqi politicians deadlocked after national elections in March failed to produce a clear winner.

But with Al Maliki's formation of a government, the issue is now under discussion.

Publicly, Al Maliki has rejected an extension, telling a November news conference and then The Wall Street Journal last month that there was no reason for US troops to stay past the deadline.

Likely to remain

But a lawmaker from al-Maliki's bloc said an American troop presence was likely to remain past 2011.

He did not have specific information on how many, but said any remaining forces would help with specific tasks such as protecting Iraqi airspace, training Iraqi forces and logistics.

He acknowledged that such an extension would be "embarrassing" for the government, especially after Al Sadr's return. The lawmaker did not want to be identified.

Al Maliki faces a dilemma. Asking for American help would be difficult politically, considering he won his new term only with Al Sadr's reluctant support.

A senior Sadrist lawmaker, Bahaa Al Aaraji, said Al Sadr returned in part to ensure that Al Maliki keeps his promise to stick by the deadline.

A longer-term presence would also infuriate Iraqis who are fed up with nearly eight years of warfare and American occupation.

But many quietly acknowledge that Iraq may not be ready for American forces to leave, given continued violence, sectarian divisions and political instability.