Iraqi MP plan to replace US with muslim trainers

A member of the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee offered Baghdad to replace the US troops with highly skilled veteran forces from Muslim countries for training Iraqi soldiers."Instead of US troops, Iraq can use Muslim countries' trainers for its security forces," Hossein Ali told FNA on Sunday. He further pointed out that many Muslim countries, such as Iran and Turkey, enjoy high capabilities in this regard and can well replace the US trainers. "Despite the US troops, Muslim trainers share many common points with Iraq's security forces and can establish a better relationship with them," he mentioned. The Iraqi parliamentarian asked Muslim leaders and officials to voice their countries' readiness for training Iraqi police troops, reminding that such a move would boost Muslim solidarity and unity against the West and reinvigorate the ties among Muslim nations. Leaders from Iraq's political blocs met Tuesday at Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's office to discuss the training mission of Iraqi forces by US trainers. The US had told Baghdad officials that it would train Iraqi soldiers if only the country granted immunity to its trainers. Following the Tuesday meeting, Iraqi Government Spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the political leaders of Iraq agreed such a training mission is needed "to achieve the readiness of Iraqi troops as soon as possible", but they rejected the US demand for granting immunity to its trainers. "Iraqi political leaders have agreed that granting US trainers legal immunity would be unnecessary," al-Dabbagh said. "In addition to that, the training mission must be conducted on Iraqi installations only, and the training must be carried out in a way to ensure that the Iraqi armed forces will be a professional army" and operate under the Iraqi Constitution. Yesterday a spokesman of the US embassy in Baghdad had told FNA that "the United States would not accept withholding the right of immunity from its trainers in Iraq". In response, Hassan al-Sanid who was present in the Tuesday meeting of Iraq's political leaders told FNA later yesterday that the country's political leaders had decided to withhold such a right from the Americans and they would not change their decision. "The decision to avoid granting immunity to the US trainers was made through a consensus among all Iraqi political groups and will be implemented under any kind of condition," he stressed. "The US is entitled to the right to reject the decision of Iraq's political leaders, but officials of that country should know that this is the only option for the US trainers to stay in Iraq, otherwise they must leave the country." Sanid continued. "Anyway, judicial immunity will not be given to the US forces," he reiterated. The current agreement between the United States and Iraq calls for the remaining US troops - more than 40,000 - to withdraw by the yearend. However, the United States convinced the Iraqis to request that some troops remain to aid in training and security. Last month, a senior Pentagon official said discussions within the Obama administration included a potential option for keeping 3,000 troops in Iraq next year. However, the official said no decisions had been made and discussions with the Iraqis continued.