BAGHDAD (AFP) — A meeting of leading Iraqis to mull the draft of a military pact between Washington and Baghdad is unlikely to take place Friday, political leaders said, adding that they knew nothing about it.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Thursday after a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Baghdad that the agreement was concluded and that it would be discussed Friday by the Political Council for National Security.
But Iraqi leaders when contacted on Friday said they were unaware of any immediate meeting of the council, the top strategic body of Iraqi leaders that includes Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani.
"I was surprised when I heard about the meeting of the council," said Hadi al-Ameri, lawmaker and a top Shiite leader from the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), a key party of the ruling Iraqi government.
"The draft itself is not finalised and such a meeting should take place at the invitation of the president or the prime minister -- which has not happened. Certainly there will be no meeting (today)."
Iraq's national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie was also unaware the council was due to meet.
"I have not been informed about the meeting," he told AFP.
An official from Deputy Prime Minister Barhem Saleh's office said they had not received any "invitation for the meeting at the moment."
Zebari, meanwhile, declined to comment on whether the meeting was to be held on Friday. "Ask the council," he told AFP.
Other Iraqi officials said chances of the meeting were remote as Talabani and other leaders such as parliament speaker Mahmud al-Mashhadani were out of the country.
Rice said her surprise visit to Baghdad on Thursday was aimed at pushing Iraqi leaders towards finalising the agreement that will decide the future of US forces in Iraq after the current UN mandate expired in December.
At a press conference she and Zebari said the negotiators were close to signing the deal but cautioned it had not yet been clinched.
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