Talk about awkward.

The United States and Iraq are negotiating a new legal framework for U.S. military operations in Iraq. A new “status of forces agreement.”

And Iraq’s prime minister stands up and says the negotiations aren’t working. That they’re at an impasse. That Iraq’s demands are unacceptable to the U.S. and U.S. demands are unacceptable to Iraqis.

What has the U.S. asked for? Fifty-plus bases. Immunity from prosecution for U.S. troops and contractors. Control of Iraqi airspace.

Now Congress wants a say.

This hour, On Point: Commitments, sovereignty and military rights in Iraq.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Alissa J. Rubin, deputy Baghdad bureau chief for The New York Times.

Vali R. Nasr. He is professor of international politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School and adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

James Dobbins. He is director of the RAND National Security Research Division’s International Security and Defense Policy Center. He was the Clinton administration’s special envoy for Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo . He was George W. Bush administration’s first special envoy for Afghanistan and representative to the Afghan opposition in the wake of September 11, 2001.

Mahmoud Othman, independent Kurdish member of the Iraqi Parliament

Tags: Iraq, Iraq war, politics