By NNN-KUNA,
Baghdad : Reports specifying that US forces in Iraq would be poised to leave in three years “are inaccurate,” said Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh on Friday.
However, he said that it was agreed by the Iraqi and US sides that US forces would pull back from major cities next summer, and eventually depart Iraq by the end of 2011.
Nonetheless, he underlined that after that date it would be up to the Iraqi government to decide if the US forces would be needed to stay on or not.
In remarks to KUNA, he emphasized that full departure of US forces “would be contingent on the national security requirements of Iraq,” and that any such departure would be arrived at in agreement with the US administration.
No firm date has been decided upon for the withdrawal of US forces and any news about such dates are theoretical at this stage, though the Iraqi government is seeking firm dates through the ongoing bilateral negotiations on reaching a long-term agreement between the two countries, he said.
That agreement is expected to see the light soon, after both sides have — to a large extent — agreed on most of its clauses.
The long-term agreement was the focus of discussion yesterday between prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice who had flown into Baghdad on an unannounced visit.
This crucial agreement seeks to define the status of US forces in Iraq once the UN security council mandate given to them runs out.
What negotiators on both sides are currently involved in is to seek closer views on some contentious issues such as giving immunity to US soldiers, redeployment of some US forces to certain locations, and exact dates of US withdrawal from Iraq, said al-Dabbagh.
He would not specify a date for the signing of the long-term agreement, saying “it is not an easy matter yet,” noting that a signing date would have to be endorsed first by the cabinet, the parliament, and the national security council before it would become binding and official.
Chief Iraqi negotiator to the long-term agreement meetings Muhammad al-Haj had earlier said in a press statement that the Iraqi and US sides ” agreed on the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq by the end of 2011,” noting that it was now up to the leadership of the two countries to decide what to do next.
Both sides also, he added “agreed that all US fighting units should pull back from major cities by June, 2009.”
The long-term agreement, composed of 27 clauses, has one that refers to withdrawal before 2011 or after that depending on the security situation in Iraq, he said.