Free Republic

A new pact that faces final approval from parliament will keep US troops in Iraq for up to three more years. By June 2009 US forces will pull back to major bases. BAGHDAD - Iraq's cabinet overwhelmingly approved a security pact on Sunday that will enable a continued American military presence in Iraq for up to three more years, overcoming protests from hard-line Shiite nationalists and pressure from Iran to block the deal. It is expected to go before the parliament for final approval by the end of this month. Key revisions on sovereignty issues, demanded by Iraq and accepted...

The Iraqi cabinet, in a near-unanimous vote, have approved the security agreement with the US that will keep our forces in that country until the end of 2011. The decision of the 37-member cabinet, essentially a microcosm of the Parliament, is expected to be a good indicator of whether the agreement will pass. The assembly has not yet announced the date of its vote, but it is scheduled to go into recess on Nov. 24.The draft approved Sunday requires coalition forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end...

British combat forces are no longer needed to maintain security in southern Iraq and should leave the country, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, has told The Times of London. In an exclusive interview in Baghdad, al-Maliki also criticised a secret deal made last year by Britain with the al-Mahdi Army, Iraq’s largest Shia militia. He said that Basra had been left at the mercy of militiamen who “cut the throats of women and children” after the British withdrawal from the city. The Iraqi leader emphasized, however, that the “page had been turned” and he looked forward to a friendly,...

WASH TIMES Friday: Obama secretly tried to sway Iraqi government to ignore Bush deal on keeping troops in Iraq... Developing...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 23, 2008 – Amid an 80-percent drop in violence and with further withdrawals of U.S. forces in sight, the coalition in Iraq has reached the “endgame,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today. “I believe we have now entered that endgame – and our decisions today and in the months ahead will be critical to regional stability and our national security interests for years to come,” he told the Senate Armed Service Committee during a hearing on Iraq and Afghanistan. Highlighting success in Iraq are reductions in U.S. casualties and overall violence, and the handover of...

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July. "He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington," Zebari said in an interview. Obama insisted that Congress should be involved in...

FORT LESLEY J. MCNAIR, D.C., Sept. 9, 2008 – The United States will continue to reduce its troop strength in Iraq, but will increase its footprint in Afghanistan, President Bush said here today. The president accepted the recommendations of military leaders to reduce U.S. troop levels in Iraq by 8,000 through January. If security conditions continue to improve in the country, further reductions will be possible, Bush said at the National Defense University. Bush also announced plans to deploy a Marine battalion to train Afghan National Army troops in November and to send an Army brigade to Afghanistan in January....

General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said declining violence in Baghdad raised the possibility that American combat troops could leave the capital by next summer. Asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said: “Conditions permitting, yeah.” His comments come as the US and Iraq hammer out the final details of a long-term security agreement that reportedly outlines a potential timeline for US combat troops to leave Iraqi cities by next summer, and the country by 2011. “The number of attacks in Baghdad...

There is nothing wrong with setting broad goals for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq. The U.S. wants to leave as soon as this is feasible, and Iraqis have long wanted us to leave. At least since 2004, Iraq’s Kurds have been the only group in Iraq that showed a consistent desire for the U.S. to stay. It also is impossible to be certain that the risks of early withdrawal will really be greater from the risks of staying. It is at least possible that acting on early timelines will force Iraqis to move towards political accommodation, to take hard decisions,...

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki expressed by far his toughest stance on the U.S. military presence in his country this week, by saying that all foreign forces should leave Iraq by the end of 2011. He rejected President Bush's ambiguous "general time horizon" of around 2011 and clarified that no U.S. training personnel or logistics troops would be allowed to stay in Iraq after the fixed date. Moreover, he offered a status-of-forces agreement to allow U.S. soldiers, as well as military contractors, to be tried in Iraqi courts. This comes as a surprise to all foreign governments that have their...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that an agreement had been reached in negotiations on a security pact with the United States to end any foreign military presence in Iraq by the end of 2011. "There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date which is the end of 2011 to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in the Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone. "Yes, there is major progress on the issue of the negotiations on the security deal,"...

ARLINGTON, Va., August 22 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain today issued the following statement on the U.S.-Iraqi negotiations for a Status of Forces Agreement: "I am pleased that, following the surge strategy led by General David Petraeus and our brave men and women in uniform, security in Iraq has improved to the point at which we can responsibly talk with our Iraqi allies about U.S. troop withdrawals. Because of the hard-won success of this strategy, the Iraqi security forces are able to take on ever greater responsibility for security in their country. We should not forget that this...

via translation - ALERT - The American troops out of Iraq end 2011 BAGHDAD - U.S. troops have left Iraq at the end of 2011 under the security agreement negotiated with the Americans who should be further examined by the highest authorities of Iraq, announced Friday by AFP Chief negotiators Iraqis. "At the end of 2011, American troops will withdraw from Iraq," Mohammed told al-Haj Hammoud.

All British combat troops are to be withdrawn from Iraq by the middle of next year, leaving a few hundred military trainers to continue instructing an Iraqi army division based in Basra, according to proposals confirmed by defence sources yesterday. The British sources also said that the Government had no plans to maintain a permanent base in Iraq, although they emphasised that no final decisions had been taken. Details of the new British personnel structure are to be negotiated in the status-of-forces agreement to be signed with Baghdad. Yesterday The Times disclosed, after an interview with Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi...

American soldiers will withdraw from cities across Iraq next summer and all US combat troops will leave the country within three years, provided the violence remains low, under the terms of a draft agreement with the Iraqi Government. In one of the most detailed insights yet into the content of the deal, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, has also told The Times that the US military would be barred from unilaterally mounting attacks inside Iraq from next year. In addition, the power of arrest for US soldiers would be curbed by the need to hand over any detainee to...

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's foreign minister insisted Sunday that any security deal with the United States must contain a "very clear timeline" for the departure of U.S. troops. A suicide bomber struck north of Baghdad, killing at least five people including an American soldier. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that American and Iraqi negotiators were "very close" to reaching a long-term security agreement that will set the rules for U.S. troops in Iraq after the U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year. Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting that the agreement include a "very clear timeline" for...

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators are "very close" to reaching a long-term security deal that will decide the fate of American forces in Iraq, the foreign minister said Sunday. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the Iraqis were insisting on the inclusion of a "very clear timeline" for the pullout of U.S.-led forces. The main sticking points have been over the authorization of U.S. military operations, immunity for American soldiers and sovereignty issues, Zebari said, adding that both sides "are compromising on all these issues." In remarks to reporters, Zebari said that talks were "on the brink" of agreement. "They have achieved...

Shi'ite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr stepped back into Iraq's political fray Friday with an offer that (if genuine) Washington would be hard-pressed to refuse: Set a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, and the Mahdi Army will begin to disband. "The main reason for the armed resistance is the American military presence," said Sadr emissary Salah al-Ubaidi, who spoke to reporters in Najaf Friday. "If the American military begins to withdrawal, there will be no need for these armed groups." Sadr in the past has vowed to expand the humanitarian work of his movement but promised to maintain...

BAGHDAD - Two Iraqi officials say the U.S. and Iraq are close to a deal under which all American combat troops would leave by October 2010 with remaining U.S. forces gone about three years later. A U.S. official in Washington acknowledges progress has been made on the timelines for a U.S. departure but offered no firm date. Another U.S. official strongly suggested the 2010 date may be too ambitious. A timetable is part of a security agreement being negotiated by U.S. and Iraqi officials.

ABC News' Mary Bruce reports: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., distanced himself this weekend from previously saying that Sen. Barack Obama's, D-Ill., 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq would be "a pretty good timetable." In an exclusive "This Week" interview with George Stephanopoulos, McCain explained, "Look, it’s not a timetable, as I said. I was asked, ‘How does that sound?’ Anything sounds good to me ... Anything is a good timetable that is dictated by conditions on the ground." McCain went on to question his rival's grasp of the situation in Iraq: “Now, look. Sen. Obama doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand...