Word: maliki
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...what appeared to be a bold move, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki declared Monday for the first time that his government may consider a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal of forces. "Today, we are looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty," al-Maliki said during a meeting with several Arab ambassadors in the United Arab Emirates. "The current trend is to reach an agreement on a memorandum of understanding either of the departure of the forces or a memorandum of understanding to put a timetable on their withdrawal...
...Maliki made the announcement amid widespread opposition among the Iraqi government to U.S. demands put forward during ongoing negotiations over the more formal Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). The SOFA would create a legal framework for a long-term U.S. troop presence in the country after the U.N. mandate expires in December. The sudden mention of a timetable - a concept aggressively supported by al-Maliki's rivals in the Sadrist movement - may have come as a shock to Washington...
...downplayed the remarks on Tuesday. "Negotiations and discussions are ongoing every day. It is important to understand that these are not talks on a hard date for withdrawal," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe. There is some basis for this relatively calm assessment out of Washington. Last month, al-Maliki said negotiations over the SOFA had reached a "dead end." His Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, later admitted the comment was little more than a negotiating tactic...
...results of that hot pursuit will help determine whether al-Maliki's military and police forces are capable of reinforcing the central government's tenuous hold on the oil-rich regions south of Baghdad - even as the Prime Minister discusses the possibility of a timetable for American troop withdrawal as part of a new security agreement with the U.S. More immediately (and concretely), the efficacy of Iraqi government forces is critical to the outcome of provincial elections in October...
...operation was to create the atmosphere for proper provincial elections. One of the goals is to make the election go smoothly," says Harbia. "Now with the outstanding position of al-Maliki in Basra, Amara, Mosul and Sadr City, people are looking to him as an honest and nationalist man." And are Maliki's rivals in the Mahdi Army weaker now than they were a month ago? "This is for certain," Harbia says. "They are outside...