Baghdad - Iraq's parliament on Wednesday postponed voting on a controversial security pact with the US for one day, as lawmakers in a turbulent session failed to deal with all the issues in question, parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani announced. Mashhadani was still confident that the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which mandates the US presence in Iraq beyond the end of the UN mandate this year, would pass, saying all issues except one had been resolved.
Both the Iraqi government and a number of political blocs opposing the deal agreed to postpone the session.
Groups that opposed the pact held up on Wednesday demands for political reforms, including adding more Sunni leaders to security forces and freeing Sunni prisoners held in Iraqi jails.
SOFA, which has been agreed by the Iraqi cabinet and which took a year of negotiation between the US and Iraq to bring to the vote stage, has become a focus point for minority Sunni politicians attempting to redress the balance of power in Iraqi politics.
The main Shiite governing alliance supports the deal, as do Kurdish parties. However, the support of minority Sunni politicians is key to the successful passage of the agreement through the Iraqi parliament.
"The government understands that our demands are constitutional and have nationalistic nature. We demand political reforms to prevent the dominance of one particular sect over the others," said Nur al-Din al-Hiyali, a lawmaker in the Sunni Tawafuq coalition.
Iraq's government, which wants a broad agreement on the deal rather than just the simple majority that is required for its passage, consented to the delay in hopes of winning more votes.
Supporters of nationalist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr rejected the agreement outright, saying it represented an "extension of the occupation."
Lawmakers on Thursday will also vote on whether to hold a national referendum on the agreement in July, 2009, as requested by Sunni quarters in the final stages of the deal's passage through parliament. Some groups said they would drop their opposition to the pact if a national referendum approves it.
The national referendum in 2009 will decide on the whether or not the security agreement with the US will continue in Iraq, six months after its initial implementation.
According to the security agreement US troops will withdraw from Iraqi cities by the end of June, 2009 and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011.
