August 22, 2008

Draft Accord With Iraq Sets Goal of 2011 Pullout

By STEPHEN FARRELLBAGHDAD — The United States has agreed to remove combat troops from Iraqicities by next June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011 if conditions inIraq remain relatively stable, according to Iraqi and American officials involved innegotiating a security accord governing American forces there.The withdrawal timetables, which Bush administration officials called “aspirationalgoals” rather than fixed dates, are contained in the draft of an agreement that still must be approved by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders before itgoes before Iraq’s fractious Parliament. It has the support of the Bush administration,American and Iraqi officials said.American officials stressed repeatedly that meeting the timetables depended on thesecurity situation in Iraq, where sectarian killings and attacks on American troopshave declined sharply over the past year from the peak levels in 2006 and 2007. Iraqiofficials, who have pushed for an even tighter target date for the United States to endits military operations, could also end up rejecting the draft agreement.Even so, the accord indicates that the Bush administration is prepared to commit theUnited States to ending most combat operations in Iraq in less than a year, a muchshorter time frame than seemed possible, politically or militarily, even a few monthsago. President Bush and many leading Republicans, including the party’s presumptivenominee for president, Senator John McCain, had repeatedly dismissed timetables for pulling out of Iraq as an admission of defeat that would empower America’s enemies.But Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government demanded a withdrawal timetable as the price of legalizing the American military presence in the country after the expiration1

of the United Nations mandate at the end of this year. Security gains in recent monthsalso made the prospect of a winding down of military operations more palatable to theWhite House and top military officials, said people involved in the talks.If approved in its current form, the accord seems likely to take center stage in the presidential race. Mr. McCain has vowed to stay in Iraq until the war is won but hassuggested that he would have the troops out by 2013, two years later than the Bushadministration has agreed to withdraw them if conditions in the accord are met.Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, hasargued that the United States should withdraw its troops from Iraq 16 months after taking office, or by mid-2010, a faster pace for full withdrawal than envisioned in thedraft accord. But the draft’s interim goal of ending combat operations in Iraqi cities bynext summer is faster than any commitment made by Mr. Obama.The draft appears to contain one significant concession on the Iraqi side. A senior Bush administration official said that Mr. Maliki allowed the timeline for endingcombat operations to slip to 2011. Previously, he and other Iraqi officials said theywanted American troops out by 2010.A deal between American and Iraqi officials was given fresh impetus by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s surprise visit to Baghdad on Thursday. Ms. Rice met withMr. Maliki and other Iraqi leaders and confirmed that both sides saw the value in“aspirational timetables” to govern the continuing role, mission and size of Americanforces in Iraq.She declined to discuss the timing, saying that to go into details of the talks “would beinappropriate at this time.” Instead, she reiterated the consistent American positionthat decisions must be based on events, not timetables.“We have always said that the roles, missions and size of the American forces here,the coalition forces, was based on the conditions on the ground and what is needed,”she said at a news conference in Baghdad with the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari.2

Iraqi officials were more forthcoming with their interpretation of the draft agreement.In an interview by telephone in Baghdad, Mohammad Hamoud, the chief Iraqinegotiator, said that the draft contained two dates: June 30, 2009, for the withdrawalof American forces from “cities and villages” and Dec. 31, 2011, for combat troops toleave the country altogether.Mr. Hamoud said the draft specified that meeting the timetable, particularly the goalof full withdrawal by 2011, depended on the security situation. He said that at the endof 2011 the Iraqi government “will review the security situation in the country and if necessary will ask the American side for certain forces for training or supporting theIraqi Security Forces.”The numbers of troops would be determined by a joint American and Iraqi committeeto be formed at the outset of the agreement in January 2009, he said. This panel woulddecide on the number and role of the remaining forces and would supervise militaryactivity.Another senior Iraqi cabinet minister, who spoke on condition of anonymity becausethe agreement is still not final, described the 2011 target as “prospective,” and said itreflected Iraqi government hopes that American troops could end their presence in thecountry by that time. He said that the ability to carry it out depended on Iraqi forces being “able to control the situation.”Even if the goal of withdrawing combat troops by 2011 is realized, the accord doesleave open the possibility that American military trainers and support forces couldremain in Iraq after that time. It is unclear whether the accord provides for semipermanent military bases in the country, and what role the United States would play in providing air and naval support for Iraq.It is also unclear how the accord will deal with another delicate area that has been thesubject of months of negotiations — the legal status of American troops fighting inIraq. That has been a sticking point throughout the talks, with the United Statesinsisting that American soldiers who commit crimes in Iraq be subject to American,3