After the Rice Visit, Agreement on US Forces Withdrawal from Iraq by 2011

U.S. to complete troop pullout from Iraq by 2011

www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-22 19:22:44  
    BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) --

(US-backed Iraqi government) and the U.S. (after the Rice visit) have reached a draft agreement on a proposed withdrawal timetable and other issues on the U.S. military presence in Iraq beyond 2008, CNN reported Friday.

    Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Hamoud, who is also Iraq's chief negotiator, told the channel that the U.S. troops would completely pull out by the end of 2011.

    He also said the U.S. troops would stay clear of Iraqi cities by June 2009.

(This is exactly what Barak Obama has announced he would do after becoming president. This means that it's a US plan in essence).

    The deal must still be approved by both sides, Hamoud said.

    Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told a press conference Thursday that the deal was almost finalized and would be presented to Iraq's leaders for review. If approved, the agreement still needs to go to the parliament.

White House says military pact with Iraq needs no Congress approval

www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-22 05:57:53  

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) --

The planned U.S.- Iraq military pact will need no approval by the Congress since it is not treaty, the White House said on Thursday.

    "It's not a treaty, so it would not require Senate ratification or anything like that," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at a ranch in Crawford, Texas, where President George W. Bush is spending his holiday.

    The military pact invited strong criticism from the U.S. Congress because Bush has no plan to submit the accord for the formal approval by the legislature branch.

    However, the Bush administration has been remaining "in close consultation with members of Congress, the House Leadership and Senate Leadership," to make sure the Congress has a part of the ongoing discussion of the bilateral military pact.

    "It was a commitment we made to the Congress, and we'll continue to have those consultations with them," he said.

    The proposed pact will provide the legal basis for the future presence of American forces in Iraq after the UN mandate that authorized deployment of multinational troops in the country expired by the end of this year.

    U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier the day from Iraq, where she was paying a surprise visit, that the two countries were "very, very close" to finalizing the agreement but had not yet clinched the deal.

    "The conversations that we're having with the Iraqis now are based on the improvement in security and our mutual desire to bring more American troops home," Johndroe said of the visit.

    For his part, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told reporters that the text of the deal was ready and the draft would be presented on Friday to Iraqi leaders to review. 

Editor: Mu Xuequan

U.S. Rice arrives in Baghdad

www.chinaview.cn 2008-08-21 15:41:27  

·Rice arrived in Baghdad in a surprise visit on Thursday. ·The visit is amid news that U.S. and Iraq have finished work on a draft security deal. ·Iraqi officials said negotiators had completed latest draft of the deal last week.

    BAGHDAD, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Baghdad in a surprise visit on Thursday, al-Hurrah satellite channel reported.

    Rice is expected to meet with Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and U.S. officials in Iraq amid news that U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have finished work on a draft security agreement that would decide the status of the U.S. troops in Iraq.

    Iraqi officials said anonymously that negotiators had completed latest draft of the deal last week and sent it to the U.S. and Iraqi governments, Media reports said late Wednesday.

    They said that the draft calls for U.S. troops to fully leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

    The two countries were involved in negotiations since March but failed to meet their July 31 deadline of the security deal which will set a framework for the U.S. troops' presence in Iraq after 2008.

    Earlier, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad clarified that the United States and Iraq are working on two kinds of agreements: one is the Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) and the other is Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).