Translated By Matthew Simonds

June 19th, 2008



Germany - Al-Iraq News - Original Article (Arabic)

After Washington agreed to lift immunity for foreign contractors , the Iraqi Foreign Ministry confirmed that it has decided to complete the security pact which will establish a legal framework for the status of American occupation forces in Iraq before the end of Tamuz/July. It was mentioned in a statement by the Ministry yesterday that the Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Dick Cheney, the American Vice President, have agreed to implement the long term, multi-part security agreement between Baghdad and Washington before the end of Tamuz/July in order to avoid the occurrence of any legal vacuum which might arise after the expiration of the Security Council mandate at the end of the current year. The statement added that “the two parties have also agreed on the necessity to mobilize efforts from all the political actors to clarify the nature of this agreement.”

In the meantime, Zebari said in an interview with the [British] newspaper, The Independent, which was published yesterday, that the United States has agreed to lift the immunity for foreign contractors under Iraqi law in accordance with the new security agreement, which Washington and Baghdad are negotiating. He added “that Iraqi authorities would arrest and punish contractors held responsible for the killing of Iraqis, if there were an incident like the one in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed by guards from the private American security company, Blackwater, in Baghdad last September.”