Word: iraqi
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...Iraqi officials continued to haggle over a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers, even as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared that any pact must grant Iraq full sovereignty and provide for the removal of American combat troops by the end of 2011. Despite Maliki's tougher negotiating stance--designed, observers say, to shore up support for the deal at home--U.S. officials insisted that any timetable would be contingent on the nation's security status. Both sides still expect to reach an agreement...
...mind of U.S. officials, the emerging "troop withdrawal" deal between Iraq and the United States would apparently look much like the many agreements the U.S. has with other countries around the world hosting U.S. forces. But five years of war and occupation have left many Iraqi leaders reluctant to accept what the U.S. considers standard practice for U.S. forces overseas: immunity from prosecution in foreign courts. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki himself suggested that blanket U.S. military immunity in Iraq was not in line with Iraqi visions for a new agreement governing the American military presence in the country...
...last week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sidestepped the question of whether the U.S. was considering an end to the immunity from prosecution enjoyed by U.S. troops in Iraq. "I'm not going to go into, obviously, the details of our negotiations," said Rice, who spoke to reporters alongside Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari amid intensive negotiations over a long-term security pact. "We are working together as partners to make certain that we cover the concerns of both parties for sovereignty for the Iraqi Government," Rice added. "And so everything that we will do in this agreement will fully...
Zebari, like Rice, avoided spelling out the latest thinking among negotiators on the question of immunity, saying "this issue, as you know, is also a sensitive issue that deals with sovereignty." But the Iraqi foreign minister made clear he at least thinks new rules will apply in the coming Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, which U.S. and Iraqi negotiators hope to complete before the end of the year. "What we have accomplished in this agreement is the most advanced version of any SOFA or strategic agreement between the United States and any other country in the world." Whether...
Finally, the draft agreement could be derailed by an upsurge in violence. The Iraqis have been telling reporters it contains specific dates, including June 30, 2009, for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraqi cities and towns, and December 31, 2011, for the withdrawal of all U.S. combat forces from the country. But Bush Administration officials, having been burned repeatedly since launching the invasion for brandishing overly optimistic predictions, now seem allergic to setting such precise deadlines. They instead prefer to label them "aspirational time horizons." Given its track record at predicting the course of events in Iraq since March...