September 2008: Gulf Times
GENEVA: Iraq and US have prepared a “final” draft of a security pact which could clear the way for a large-scale troop withdrawal by 2011 and it is now awaiting a political decision, Iraq’s foreign minister said yesterday.
“We have now a single text, a final draft. It is up to the political leadership now to make a political decision,” he told journalists in Geneva, where he will address a global security conference today.
“That decision is drawing near, I think,” he said.
Zebari declined to say how the question of immunity for US troops — one of the most contentious issues involved — was dealt with in this final draft of the agreement.
He stressed the precise timing of the troop withdrawal would not be set in stone in the “very tactical and detailed” accord.
“We are contemplating that next summer, 2009, providing that this improvement in the Iraqi security performance and readiness (continues) ... there may be no more need for US forces or coalition forces to be in the city centres,” he said.
Depending on security conditions, the minister said, “2011 could be a possibility for a major deployment of forces,” later clarifying that he was referring to a withdrawal.
“We are not talking about a fixed timetable. We are talking about a time horizon, timeline, aspirational date,” he said.
“Everything is condition-based, it’s condition-driven.”
Zebari said Washington’s decision to boost its military presence in Iraq temporarily, a strategy known as a troop surge,
had helped stabilise the country and make its cities safer.
"I have been living in Baghdad for the past five years and now the situation is much much better in terms of the movement, in terms of the economy, of the people going out,” he said.
Zebari said a status-of-forces accord with the US would be an important political step that could help bolster Iraqi security forces who would take over when US-led troops go. “This will get us closer to gaining full sovereignty,” he said.
The US plans to pull 8,000 troops out of Iraq by February, leaving a force of 138,000 there.
The minister’s comments come days after the US military commander in Iraq warned that political discord between Iraqi leaders and a resurgence of Al Qaeda and Shia extremism could still torpedo progress.
General David Petraeus said in an interview on Thursday that Iraq’s divided leaders who are “wrestling fundamental issues of high magnitude” could still ruin security gains.
“A resurgence of Al Qaeda, return of special groups (Shia extremist cells) in some form and potential political discord turning into violence on the ground” could erase these gains, he said.
Go to GSR homepage
