BAGHDAD - Iraq’s top Shi’ite Muslim cleric has expressed concern about the security pact approved last week allowing U.S. troops to remain in the country for three more years.

A senior aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said Saturday that the influential cleric fears the deal will not guarantee Iraq’s sovereignty. He also said he feels there is no national consensus on it.

The aide said Ayatollah al-Sistani supports holding a referendum on the pact, which lawmakers agreed to do in order to get the approval of the main Sunni faction.

The reclusive cleric does not often get directly involved in politics, but his views carry immense weight in Iraq’s large Shi’ite community.

Iraqi lawmakers signed the security pact with the United States last week. It was approved by the main Sunni, Shi’ite and Kurdish factions, but opposed by lawmakers loyal to opposition cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

The deal is expected to be approved by Iraq’s three-member presidential council. The agreement would replace the U.N. mandate for the U.S. military presence in Iraq. That mandate expires December 31.

The new security agreement calls for U.S. forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, as an interim step. It also gives Iraq strict oversight over some 150,000 U.S. forces in the country.

In another development, Iraqi authorities say they have discovered a series of shallow mass graves north of Baghdad holding the bodies of 33 men, women and children believed to have been executed by militants from al-Qaida in Iraq. The graves were found in Abu Toama, in Diyala province, an area that was once an al-Qaida in Iraq stronghold. Security officials say they expect they may find more bodies nearby.

Source:  VOA News