Quote Originally Posted by English assassin
For what it is worth so far as I know the fact that soveriegnty has passed to a new body does not undo the acts of the formerly soveriegn power unless and until the new power says it does. Any other doctrine would be quite inconvenient, as it would mean at the moment of transfer the territory is wholly without law. Not a likely result. So unless and until the new Iraqi government validly issues a new law governing the status of UK forces in Iraq we seem to be free and clear.
The rub in this whole matter seems to be that the new Iraqi government is merely provisional and will remain so until it has been granted its full responsiblity under the Constitution-in-spe. Thus it can not enter in any sort of international agreement on the status of foreign forces on its soil. I would think that upon the return of sovereignty, all laws of the former Iraqi government stand unless decreed otherwise by the new government. Obviously this is not what Her Majesty's Government wants to hear. And Her Majesty's Govermnent indeed possesses the APC's to enforce its view. Even though, as we saw in images of last Monday's riots, the APC's appear to have a capacity for spontaneous combustion that is quite on a par with the political situation in the British sector.