Maliki shakes up US withdrawal talks with new negotiating team

BAGHDAD - At the "make-or-break" stage of talks with the United States on the withdrawal of American troops in Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has swept aside his negotiating team and replaced it with three of his closest aides, a reshuffle that some officials involved in the discussions warn risks sabotaging the agreement.

The decision on the team negotiating the pact, which the Americans have described as the basis of a long-term strategic alliance between the United States and Iraq, remains so sensitive it has not been announced officially.

In disclosing the switch to the Los Angeles Times this weekend, a senior Iraqi official close to Maliki also suggested that the two sides remain deadlocked on key issues.

Maliki dismissed the delegation headed by the Foreign Ministry and chose his national security adviser, Mowaffak Rubaie; his chief of staff, Tareq Najem; and political adviser Sadiq Rikabi to conduct the negotiations' final stage, the official said.

The shakeup comes just four months before the expiration of the United Nations mandate that authorizes the US troop presence in Iraq.

When US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Iraq recently, expectations rose that an agreement was imminent. But Iraq and the United States remain far apart on the matter of immunity for US forces in Iraqi courts, the official said.

"We would have a serious problem if we took it to Parliament right now," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the issue.

The official insisted that if US troops remained exempt from Iraqi rule of law, the pact would never pass Iraq's legislature.

The sides are still negotiating a withdrawal date for US troops, the official said.

The latest version of the agreement states that all US forces will leave Iraq by the end of 2011, unless Iraq requests otherwise.

The text also states the Americans will withdraw from cities in June 2009, unless the Iraqis ask them to stay.

The new wording marks a departure from the White House insistence on a conditions-based timetable for a US withdrawal.

Under the new language, Iraq, not the American military, decides when the Americans will leave.

US officials have gone back to Washington to consult on the language, the confidant to Maliki said.

Some Iraqi lawmakers have reacted angrily to the dismissal of the original negotiating team. "These are diversionary tactics to avoid a decision," said an Iraqi familiar with the talks.