Iraq's parliament adjourned for a lengthy break on Monday without a deal allowing a cadre of British troops to stay beyond a previously agreed withdrawal date to help Iraq protect valuable oil platforms, Reuters reported. Members of the 275-member parliament are not expected to resume work until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is due to end around September 20. Left undecided is the fate of the agreement that would give up to 100 British troops legal basis for remaining in Iraq to help protect the facilities off Iraq's south coast, where most Iraqi oil exports are shipped, and train Iraqi forces there. A vote on the pact has been blocked several times in recent weeks by lawmakers close to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who have made their opposition to any deals allowing the presence of foreign troops in Iraq a signature issue. Under a separate agreement negotiated last year, Britain was due to pull out its troops by June 30. Britain, which sent 46,000 troops to the Gulf for the 2003 invasion, had already withdrawn its soldiers to the airport in the southern city of Basra, Iraq's southern oil hub, by 2007. It began to pull out for good earlier this year but the legal status of the remaining troops is now in question even after a one-month extension to the June 30 date. "The presence of British troops after 30th of July will be illegal and illegitimate. They must respect Iraqi laws and leave Iraq by this date," said Ahmed al-Masoudi, spokesman for the Sadr bloc in parliament. Other lawmakers, though, suggested another extension would be possible or said the government could enter into another sort of agreement with Britain to permit the troops to stay without parliamentary approval. The British embassy in Baghdad was not immediately available for comment. Under a separate deal, the United States has to withdraw its approximately 130,000 troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
