July 8, 2008

Iraq wants U.S. out on a deadline

Bush - "looking at conditions, not calendars"

The Iraq government says that any agreement on future ties between Iraq and the United States should include a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops.

Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told the CNN news network that any timetable would depend on "conditions and the circumstances that the country would be undergoing." But he said a pullout within "three, four or five" years was among the possibilities.

The United States and Iraq are currently trying to negotiate a framework governing the stationing of U.S. and allied troops beyond the end of 2008, when the current U.N. mandate for the coalition forces expires. But in Washington, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said U.S. negotiators are "looking at conditions, not calendars."

Bush backtracking

President Bush has long maintained that if the Iraqi government wants the U.S. to leave Iraq, then the U.S. would do just that. He said in May 2007:

"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a constitution. It's their government's choice. If they were to say, leave, we would leave." President Bush May 2007

Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested having a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops. "The direction we are taking is to have a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or to have a timetable for their withdrawal," Maliki's office quoted him as saying.