By IRNA,
Baghdad : The United States and Iraq have agreed to set a “general time horizon” for the “further reduction of US combat forces in Iraq” following the improvement in security conditions in the country, the White House said Friday.
The breakthrough, which was reached between President George W.
Bush and Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq in discussions by video link Thursday, could lead to the successful completion of a long-term security agreement covering American operations in Iraq – from combat missions to detaining Iraqis – by the end of this month, a White House official said.
“We’re converging on an agreement,” the official said.
The long-term agreement had been held up by differences over issues like the extent of Iraqi control over American military operations, the right of US soldiers to detain suspects without the approval of the Iraqi authorities and Iraqi demands for a timetable for withdrawal.
But in a statement, the White House said Bush and Maliki had agreed “that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspiration goals – such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of US forces from Iraq.”
The reference to a “time horizon” is a significant concession by the Bush administration, which has long resisted setting a timetable for troop cuts. It is a tacit admission that the US military presence in Iraq is not endless.
The administration insisted on Friday that it had not shifted its position, but that the move was simply a reflection of the changing nature of conditions in Iraq.
“These are aspiration goals, not artificial timetables based on political expediency,” said Scott Stanzel, a White House spokesman, who was traveling with Bush in Tucson, Arizona, where the president was attending a fund-raising event.
The Democrats have long pushed for a specific timetable for troop withdrawals.
In the statement, the White House insisted there would not be “an arbitrary date for withdrawal” and again reiterated Bush’s opposition to what he has called “an artificial timetable for withdrawal.” But a deal seems in reach by the end of this month only if dates for a specific timetable for troop reductions and other legal details governing military forces, known as a Status of Forces Agreement, are left to future talks.