BAGHDAD: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Iraqi leaders yesterday to agree quickly to a US-Iraq security deal that outlines the withdrawal of American troops.
Flying into Baghdad on an unannounced trip, Rice said the two sides were nearing an agreement after months of painstaking negotiations but stressed there were still unresolved issues, including when US soldiers will leave and what their operations will consist of until then.
“The negotiators have taken this very, very far,” she told reporters aboard her plane. “But there is no reason to believe that there is an agreement yet.”
“There are still issues concerning exactly how our forces operate,” Rice said, adding that “the agreement rests on aspirational timelines.”
Her comments dampened speculation that agreement might be reached while she is in Baghdad on a several-hour visit, her first to Iraq since March, after US and Iraqi officials said Wednesday that a draft document was done and awaiting approval from political leaders. Rice said it was “very premature” to conclude the agreement had been finalized. Rice declined to talk about specific gaps, but US officials said more work is needed to reach agreements on a timeline for US troop withdrawals, immunity from prosecution for US troops and the handling of Iraqi prisoners. One senior official said, “Rice would be pushing Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki hard to accept.”
Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday that a final draft of a military pact governing US forces in Iraq will be presented to the country’s highest authorities today. “We are very close, we have a text, but not the final agreement. Everything has been addressed,” Zebari told reporters after meeting with Rice in Baghdad. The draft will now be considered by the Political Council for National Security today a strategic body which includes the president, the prime minister and the chiefs of all political parties.
“Tomorrow is a very important day,” Zebari said, adding that the draft was the most sophisticated of all the military agreements the US has with any country.
US President George W. Bush and Al-Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign a Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq by the end of July, but controversy has dogged the arrangement. The original target date was July 31.
In another development, a senior US military official said yesterday that US forces could begin withdrawing from Iraqi cities as early as June under a draft agreement reached between US and Iraqi negotiators.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the agreement on the US status of forces still awaited final approval.
But the official said that under the draft agreement a withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi cities “could be as early as June, conditions permitting.”
