BAGHDAD, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- Efforts by officials to reach a new "status of forces" agreement governing U.S. troops in Iraq probably won't be reached by a year-end deadline, observers say.
The current U.N. mandate providing legal cover for the U.S. occupation of the country expires Dec. 31 and long-running negotiations with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to hammer out an accord have taken so long that even if a deal were reached soon, it probably couldn't be implemented by Jan. 1, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Sources told the newspaper U.S. negotiators are considering alternatives, including trying to persuade the U.N. Security Council to extend the current mandate -- unlikely, given Russia's opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq -- or proceeding with a "handshake deal" with Maliki, something that might not be politically possible.
If Jan. 1 comes with no status of forces deal, Maliki told The Times of London, he would have "no choice" but to request a U.N. extension "because the American forces will lose their legal cover on Dec. 31. If that happens, according to international law, Iraqi law and American law, the U.S. forces will be confined to their bases and have to withdraw from Iraq."
