Iraq's Top Shiite Politician Stresses US Troops' Pullout from Iraq

"We hope that the US forces will leave Iraq by the end of this Christian year (2011)," Head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq Ammar al-Hakim said in a meeting with Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayegani, a senior Shiite cleric and religious authority, in Iran's holy city of Qom on Friday.

He further stressed the need for Baghdad to devise a "national framework" to assure Iraq's Kurds and Sunni Muslim population that the country belongs to the entire nation.

Hakim's emphasis on the US withdrawal came as earlier media reports said that the US has pressed senior Iraqi officials to revise their decision on the US pullout and demand Washington to keep its troops in the country beyond their scheduled departure in the yearend.

Iraqi state officials as well as religious and political figures have all condemned the US intention and attempts to extend the mission of its troops in the country.

Late in April, Maliki announced that Iraq no more needs the US forces to protect its internal security, and underlined that his government will not bow to the pressures exerted on Baghdad to accept an extended US military mission in the country.

"The Iraqi government and parliament will not heed foreign pressures when making their decision on this issue and they will do what is to the interests of the Iraqi nation," Maliki said during a press conference in Baghdad at the time.

Also, senior Iraqi Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Kazzem al-Hosseini al-Haeri condemned the attempts made by Washington to prolong its military deployment in Iraq, and issued a Fatwa (religious decree) against the presence of the US forces in the country after the end of 2011.

"The extended mission of the infidel occupiers in Iraq even for one single day after the mentioned date (as cited in the security agreement) is haram (religiously forbidden)," the Grand Ayatollah declared in his decree.

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