By DPA
Washington : A non-partisan report to be released Sunday in Washington calls for US forces in Iraq to be cut by half by 2010 and proposes United Nations-led continuous negotiations among leaders of Iraqi factions, modelled on the Bosnian peace talks of the 1990s.
The panel that authored the report has links with the Iraq Study Group, the US bipartisan panel that in December 2006 recommended a gradual withdrawal from Iraq. That study was led by former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton.
Sunday’s report, being issued ahead of key assessments of the conflict by US military and civilian officials in the coming week, was prepared with the participation of many of the experts who advised the Iraq Study Group, the Washington Post reported Sunday.
Titled “Iraq: A Time for Change”, the report calls for a 50 percent cut in US troop levels in Iraq within three years and a complete handover to Iraqi forces by 2012.
In an excerpt published in Sunday’s Washington Post, the report finds that “the US faces too many challenges around the world to continue its current level of effort in Iraq, or even the deployment that was in place before the surge. It is time to chart a clearer path forward.”
It also urges that the UN promptly launch continuous talks among the hostile political factions in Iraq. Similar to the process of the Bosnian peace negotiations, the talks would be held without halt until major issues are resolved.
According to the Washington Post, the report lists familiar issues to be dealt with – power sharing, revising the constitution, distribution of oil resources and local elections, among others.
The US has been pushing for the Iraqi government and parliament to address the same questions, with little progress.
The report’s authors were brought together by the US Institute of Peace, an independent, non-partisan agency founded and supported financially by the US Congress since 1986.