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Iraq revives deal to buy jets
By The Associated Press
Published: July 31, 2011
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BAGHDAD --
Iraq's prime minister said Saturday he is reviving a deal to buy multimillion-dollar fighter jets from the United States and affirmed the need for American trainers to help Iraqis operate and maintain the 36 F-16s.
However, Nouri al-Maliki avoided saying whether the trainers would be active-duty troops or private contractors — sidestepping the key question of whether American military personnel will be asked to remain past an end-of-year deadline for withdrawing. That question is Iraq's top political issue and is being debated hotly among the country's leaders.
The fighter jet deal, which al-Maliki announced at a news conference, more than doubles the number of aircraft Iraq initially planned to buy.
"We should provide Iraq with the means, including warplanes, to protect its sovereignty," al-Maliki said after addressing a closed session of parliament.
It was a turnabout from earlier this year, when Baghdad abandoned the deal and decided that it would spend hundreds of millions of dollars on food rations for poor Iraqis.
Al-Maliki did not say when the purchase of the F-16s will proceed, where the money will come from or how it will affect other government programs already in place.
The prime minister's parliamentary appearance came after Iraq's top political leaders postponed, for the second time in a week, a meeting to discuss whether U.S. troops will be asked to continue training Iraqi security forces beyond the end of the year.
The United States is pushing for a fast decision, arguing that it soon will be too late for it to plan for an extension of its troop presence.
Under a 2008 agreement between Baghdad and Washington, all American troops must leave Iraq by Dec. 31.
But Iraq's continued instability has led many Iraqi and U.S. officials to push for troops to stay.
The issue has divided Iraq's leaders deeply, however, and a key political Shiite bloc that helped al-Maliki keep his job last year after his political coalition fell short in national elections has threatened violence if troops remain.
Iraqi officials have predicted that the 325-member parliament will reject extending the U.S. military mission in Iraq, but al-Maliki on Saturday said "the presence of trainers does not need a parliament vote."
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