Sure. We are coming to a critical moment because of the status of forces agreement. Up until the end of last year, the legal basis for the presence of the Americans in Iraq was a Security Council resolution, but that changed starting this year. The Security Council resolution authority just didn't continue, and then it was replaced legally by a status of forces agreement. That agreement provides, in stages, for the handing over of power from the Americans to the Iraqis.
In my view, the best way to maintain protection is to either maintain an American or an international presence at the camp. That way, there could be some assessment of compliance with the assurances of the Iraqi government; there could be monitoring. I personally have been pressing the Americans and meeting with foreign governments to press the Americans to remain in some form.
To a certain extent, that succeeded, at least in January, when there was a handover, because there remains an American presence in Camp Ashraf. The controlling forces are Iraqi, but the Americans are there. As you say, there have been some violations in the camp. There have been problems with visitors getting in and so on, but at least the group is not expelled.
A next critical juncture is the end of June, because the status of forces agreement says at that point, all cities, towns, and villages get handed over to the Iraqis. There's an argument that Camp Ashraf is neither a city, a town, or a village; it's a camp. There's also, in any case, in my view, a possibility of an American presence without it necessarily being an American armed force. Another possibility, which frankly I would invite the Canadians to explore, is a multilateral or international force there to replace the Americans for the purpose of monitoring this particular assurance. Canada could certainly be part of that.
The situation is definitely worrisome. The person in charge, Al-Rubay'i, has not been helpful at all. He's been making a number of very difficult and worrisome statements. Of course, I appreciate the fact that you're even familiar with this, because in terms of the media, this has not been a headline issue in Iraq.