Tough Iraqi leader pushed through pact

BAGHDAD — In a country where agreements are hard to reach, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki built a broad political coalition to muscle through a divisive U.S.-Iraq security pact that could set his place in his nation's history as the man who ended the U.S. occupation.

He took the mantle of a nationalist in televised remarks Thursday after the pact he helped broker passed parliament by a landslide 149-35 vote.

"We have gotten an important achievement by signing the withdrawal agreement for the foreign troops from Iraq and bringing back its sovereignty," he said.

Al-Maliki came to power in 2006 as a sectarian Shiite lawmaker propped up by a tenuous coalition of political blocs. He has taken an increasingly assertive role as Iraq's leader since March, when he launched a military offensive in Basra against Shiite militias loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Al-Maliki put his fingerprints all over the U.S. security agreement, condemning early drafts as unsatisfactory to telegraph his toughness to the Iraqi people in the spring and summer.

He changed course and endorsed the deal only two weeks ago, when he said the Americans had met most of his demands, including ones the U.S. was reluctant to yield ground on, such as setting a timetable for the American withdrawal and giving Iraqis more authority over U.S. military operations here.

"Prime Minister Maliki drove an extremely tough bargain," said Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who worked closely with Gen. David Petraeus in implementing the surge strategy that contributed to security gains in Iraq in 2007.

Al-Maliki's supporters call the pact an unmitigated victory for the prime minister.

"He's come all this way with hard bargaining and negotiation until he achieved almost everything he asked for," said Haider al-Abadi, a parliament member from al-Maliki's Dawa Party.

His detractors worry that this victory could put al-Maliki on the cusp of becoming a strong Shiite leader that they liken to a dictator.

Bartering over the agreement among Iraqi lawmakers exposed disputes that could crack the strong central government al-Maliki is trying to craft.

The political fault line centers on al-Maliki's effort to reach out to Iraqi tribes through organizations called support councils. He views them as an extension of the Sunni Awakening, a U.S.-supported effort in 2006 and 2007 to fight al-Qaida in Iraq by working closely with Sunni tribes.

But the tribes on these councils are paid from al-Maliki's office and are loyal to the central government.

Opponents fear they'll be used to boost al-Maliki's party in next year's elections at their expense and with the sway of cash steal support from politically powerful parties such as the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the north and the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq that dominates in the Shiite south.

The councils also trigger concerns that al-Maliki will use their political power to diminish Kurdish power in the disputed areas such as oil-rich Kirkuk and Nineveh province in Iraq's north and kill a dream of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq for a federal Shiite region in the south.

Opponents call the councils armed militias that answer to the prime minister but work outside the Iraqi military and police.

"It is a dictatorship," President Massoud Barzani, a Kurd, said of the support councils.

But the tribes say that the support councils are essential to counter the strength not only of terrorists but also of the Kurdish Peshmerga in northern cities. They worry that Kurds are trying to expand their territory, and they view al-Maliki as their ally against parties that would break up Iraq.

The Kurdish National Alliance and the Supreme Council were two of the four parties that lifted al-Maliki to power in 2006. Both are taking steps to break with al-Maliki over the support councils, though they stood with him on the security agreement.

Al-Maliki alienated a third party — a bloc tied to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — in the spring when he launched the offensive against al-Sadr's militia in Basra.

That moment proved to Iraqis that al-Maliki wasn't afraid to tackle his allies to fight rogue militias.

Al-Maliki made the move without consulting the U.S. military, which came in to support the Iraqi forces after the initial attack.

"The fact is he made it stick," Mansoor said. "He staked his political future on this decision, and when he made it work, it won him respect from every political bloc, with the exception of the Sadrists."

"Maliki has managed to cross the ethnic-sectarian boundaries, and now he's appealing to all Iraqis," al-Abadi said. "He proved his fairness, his leadership and his statesmanship."