Nouri al-Maliki sent hints that he actually wants a timetable for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. I was… skeptical. Now the permanent national-security adviser, Mowaffaq al-Rubaie (has anyone else noticed he’s been in his position for the last three premiers? Who’s paying his salary, huh?), says something definitive:

“There should not be any permanent bases in Iraq unless these bases are under Iraqi control,” Rubaie said. “We would not accept any memorandum of understanding with [the U.S.] side that has no obvious and specific dates for the foreign troops’ withdrawal from Iraq.”

What in the world? Could this actually be the end of the permanent-occupation deal? Who put something in my drink?

I don’t know. We’ll see. Stuff like this has a tendency to get walked back. But The Washington Post reports that Rubaie, a Shiite, issued his comment after meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest Shiite religious authority in Iraq. And according to this Iranian news story, Sistani has had it up to here with Maliki’s flirtations with a permanent occupation:

The Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most revered Shiite leader in Iraq on Tuesday rejected any security agreement with US, stressing such deal will affect the country’s sovereignty.

In a meeting with Iraqi national security adviser Muwaffaq Al-Rubaie who was briefing al-Sistani in Najaf on the progress of the government’s security efforts, and the talks on US security deal, Ayatollah said his country will not accept such a security deal which is seeking to justify the illegal presence of US military troops in the war-torn country.

Ayatollah Sistani’s statements came after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Monday that Iraq was seeking a timetable for withdrawal of US troops as part of its negotiations with Washington on a controversial US security pact that guarantees long-term presence of the US troops in Iraq after the UN’s mandate expires at the end of 2008.

The usual caveats apply about the veracity of Iranian news organizations, but at least this makes sense.