the 07/22/2008

US: 'No set date' for Iraq pullout

The United States and Iraq have agreed to seek "a general timehorizon" for withdrawing American troops, according to the WhiteHouse.

Dana Perino, White House spokeswoman, said on Friday that GeorgeBush, the US president, and Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi primeminister, had agreed not to set an "arbitrary date for withdrawal".

Iraqi leaders, including al-Maliki, have previously demanded a settimetable be included as part of a security agreement, which dealswith the future of US military deployment in Iraq, being negotiatedby the two countries.

According to the White House statement, the troop withdrawals areone of several "aspirational goals" which will be implementeddepending on conditions on the ground.

Those goals include "the resumption of Iraqi security control intheir cities and provinces and the further reduction of US combatforces from Iraq," Perino said.

Ground rules

Washington says an agreement is needed to lay out the ground rulesfor US forces in Iraq after the UN mandate for their presenceexpires at year's end, but negotiations have run into trouble,particularly over whether US troops would be immune from Iraqiprosecution.

However, there appeared to be some confusion over whether theagreement would lead to the US quitting Iraq entirely.

While the White House referred only to reducing troop levels, Alial-Dabbagh, Iraq's government spokesman, said that the aim of theagreement was "to decrease the number of American forces in Iraqand later withdraw them".

Perino said US forces would move "from a primary combat role" towhat Washington calls an "overwatch role" of training and advisingIraqi forces, and carrying out special forces operations.

"This transition and the subsequent reduction in US forces fromIraq is a testament to the improving capacity of Iraq's SecurityForces and the success of joint operations" begun in January 2007,she said.

Security transfer

The US military says that violence across Iraq has fallen to afour-year low.

US-led forces have transferred security in 10 of the country's 18provinces to Iraqi forces, the most recent being in Diwaniyaprovince on Wednesday.

Iraqi leaders believe that they can take over securityresponsibilities in the remaining eight provinces by the end ofthis year.

Bush and al-Maliki had aimed to confirm an agreement by July 31,but on Friday the White House spokeswoman said the two leaders had"agreed on a common way forward to conclude these negotiations assoon as possible".

A US embassy official in Baghdad said on Friday that the originallyenvisaged security pact called the Status of Forces Agreement(SOFA) had now been "suspended".

"The SOFA as we had in Japan or Germany has been suspended or putaside but not thrown away," he told the AFP news agency.

He also said the two sides are currently negotiating a "securityprotocol or operational protocol" that contains the key contents ofthe SOFA but would be for a "certain period of time".