BAGHDAD: Iraqi lawmakers are set to vote Monday on a resolution that will determine the fate of non-US foreign troops in the country, mainly British forces, when a UN mandate expires in 10 days.The vote is due to take place after a last-ditch compromise was hammered out between parliamentary leaders to ensure a decision is made before parliament goes into recess for a week on Tuesday.
"The Iraqi parliament will vote on a motion authorising the government to sign a deal with non-US nations' forces to determine the time of their departure, which should be before the end of July 2009," Ali al-Adeeb, a prominent MP in the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, told reporters on Sunday.
The resolution to be put to the 275-member Iraqi parliament on Monday would mandate the government to sign bilateral deals with each of the other coalition countries which still have troops on Iraqi soil.
It requires a simple majority to be adopted.
The United States, which supplies 95 percent of foreign troops in Iraq, has already signed a Status of Forces Agreement with the Baghdad government, under which its combat forces can remain in the country until the end of 2011.
Confusion had reigned in parliament on Saturday over whether a vote had taken place on a bill initially intended to set new rules for the presence of non-US foreign troops.
On Wednesday, the first reading of the bill took place amid uproar in the aftermath of the protest by an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at visiting US President George W. Bush earlier this month.
When discussion of the bill resumed on Saturday, some MPs thought they were voting against the proposed law on non-US forces, while others thought the vote was to invalidate the decision made during Wednesday's rowdy session.
Monday's vote will mostly affect the presence of forces from Britain, the key US ally in the 2003 invasion whose 4,100 men and women are concentrated in the south of the country.
Australia, Estonia, Romania and El Salvador also have small numbers of troops in Iraq.
this news published by www.thearynews.com
