In Iraq, the head of the Accordance Front, Iraq’s largest Sunni Arab bloc, said on Monday that the Sunni bloc still has reservations about a security pact that would let US troops stay in Iraq for another three years. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Sunni bloc, told reporters that the Sunnis wanted a referendum on the pact which has yet to be approved by parliament.

Adnan al-Dulaimi: “We need guarantees for the future, since we are afraid of the future because our role will be marginalized. We will be exposed to daily arrest operations, and this should be stopped. The government and US forces should work together to assure Iraqis that they will not be arrested, searched or killed. The best solution that we see is the referendum, as the Islamic party asked before.”

This comes as followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr make a bid to block the Status of Forces Agreement in parliament.