Free Preview of Members-Only Content

Iraq's Cabinet has approved the Status of Forces Agreement with the United States. Next, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus will work on the peace process in Afghanistan.

The Iraqi Cabinet approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) on Sunday. Under the agreement, which still has to be ratified by parliament, U.S. troops will withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011. Before that, however, the agreement will place U.S. forces under the authority of the Iraqi government and will require them to gain Baghdad’s permission to conduct raids on Iraqi homes. U.S. forces will stop patrolling Iraqi towns by the middle of 2009. By the end of 2009, U.S. forces will withdraw from populated areas, and all U.S. bases will be turned over to Iraqi control.

Opposition to the agreement came from both the Sunni and Shiite communities. In the end, however, a compromise was struck, leaving only the more hard-line elements from both communities maintaining their opposition. Radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s movement is the key group that continues to oppose SOFA.

The Shia-dominated Iraqi government is unlikely to have approved the accord without making sure that the Iranians were generally on board with it. Nonetheless, the official Iranian response remains to be seen in terms of how Tehran actually reacts — whether it will use assets in Iraq to try to disrupt the withdrawal (assuming it has enough assets), or wait and try to influence the government in Baghdad, or try to reach a comprehensive settlement with the United States on Iraq. We suspect that the Iranians don’t know what they will do themselves, and are debating the point even now.