Troops to stay in Iraq past '08
U.S. aide: Pact sets agenda, isn't binding
By James Gerstenzang and Ned Parker, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times - November 27, 2007
WASHINGTON - President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a joint declaration Monday that sets out principles for a broad agreement to be negotiated in 2008 to define a future relationship between the United States and Iraq and guarantee a U.S. troop presence for at least a few more years.
Iraqi and U.S. officials said 2008 would be the last in which both countries asked for a UN Security Council resolution charging America with guaranteeing Iraq's security.
The new joint declaration calls for future political, economic and security dimensions between Baghdad and Washington to be negotiated in 2008. Baghdad also will ask the United Nations to remove it from Chapter 7 status, a legal designation that essentially has classified Iraq as a pariah state since Saddam Hussein, the late dictator, invaded Kuwait in 1990.
"The United States has promised that the multinational forces will stay under a United Nations mandate only until the end of 2008," al-Maliki said in a televised address. "The final extension for the multinational forces under the UN mandate will finish in 2008."
Still, Shiite parliament member Haidar Abadi, who serves as an adviser to al-Maliki and belongs to the prime minister's Dawa Party, said Iraq envisions a need for the U.S. military to stay longer than the end of 2008.
"It will help Iraq protect its borders against foreign aggression, and it will help the Iraqi government [with] fighting terrorists: Al Qaeda, the Saddamists and the outlaws, those outside the law," Abadi said.
Iraq will want the U.S. to continue training Iraqi troops for the foreseeable future, but Abadi made clear that Iraq did not envision a relationship in which U.S. bases remained in the country 50 years after they were first established.
"No military bases will be offered for long terms like in South Korea," Abadi said, adding that what was being discussed was a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces in the next few years.
"If the current security improvements are safeguarded and continue, we are hoping a huge number of U.S. forces are withdrawn. ... It depends in the next year whether the Iraqi security forces have the confidence to carry on their task without any help from them."
Another important element of the declaration for Iraq's Shiite-led government is that it commits the United States to backing the Shiite-led, democratically elected government while some U.S. military commanders and politicians have criticized the al-Maliki government as ineffectual.
"There have been calls by some military commanders in the United States that Iraq is not ripe for democracy. We wanted the commitment from the United States with this agreement that all parties will protect and support democracy in Iraq and to safeguard the constitution," Abadi said. "This sends the signal to our enemies. There is no going to back to square one."
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, Bush's top White House adviser on Iraq, said the agreement was not binding but would set the agenda for talks with Iraq over economic, diplomatic and security relations.
It was completed as the Bush administration sought to draw attention to improved security in parts of Iraq. The text calls for the United States to help protect Iraq's natural resources, including oil, and commits America to assisting Iraq on the path to a free-market economy. Lute said the message of the agreement was that "Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own, but it won't have to stand alone."
But Lute refused to close the door on the possibility of permanent military bases, saying it would be a subject for future negotiations.
He also said that as part of a long-term pact, the two countries would work toward achieving reconciliation among Iraq's warring sects, assuring all parties that the United States was an active partner and they should not "hedge their bets."
The declaration of principles also calls on the United States to promote private investment in Iraq, particularly from America, and steer further American financial and technical assistance to Iraqi institutions.
Both al-Maliki and Lute said the next step is to complete the broader pact by the end of July. That timetable would allow for additional improvements in Iraq just as the U.S. presidential election is entering its final months.
Al-Maliki said the pact would be put before the Iraqi parliament after July, giving the body time to debate the matter well ahead of the expiration of the 2008 UN Security Council resolution.
In a statement, the White House said the agreement "moves us closer to normalized, bilateral relations" with Iraq, adding that it hoped the United Nations Security Council would renew for one year the mandate for a multinational force deployed there. The current mandate expires Dec. 31.
WASHINGTON - President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed a joint declaration Monday that sets out principles for a broad agreement to be negotiated in 2008 to define a future relationship between the United States and Iraq and guarantee a U.S. troop presence for at least a few more years.
Iraqi and U.S. officials said 2008 would be the last in which both countries asked for a UN Security Council resolution charging America with guaranteeing Iraq's security.
The new joint declaration calls for future political, economic and security dimensions between Baghdad and Washington to be negotiated in 2008. Baghdad also will ask the United Nations to remove it from Chapter 7 status, a legal designation that essentially has classified Iraq as a pariah state since Saddam Hussein, the late dictator, invaded Kuwait in 1990.
"The United States has promised that the multinational forces will stay under a United Nations mandate only until the end of 2008," al-Maliki said in a televised address. "The final extension for the multinational forces under the UN mandate will finish in 2008."
Still, Shiite parliament member Haidar Abadi, who serves as an adviser to al-Maliki and belongs to the prime minister's Dawa Party, said Iraq envisions a need for the U.S. military to stay longer than the end of 2008.
"It will help Iraq protect its borders against foreign aggression, and it will help the Iraqi government [with] fighting terrorists: Al Qaeda, the Saddamists and the outlaws, those outside the law," Abadi said.
Iraq will want the U.S. to continue training Iraqi troops for the foreseeable future, but Abadi made clear that Iraq did not envision a relationship in which U.S. bases remained in the country 50 years after they were first established.
"No military bases will be offered for long terms like in South Korea," Abadi said, adding that what was being discussed was a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces in the next few years.
"If the current security improvements are safeguarded and continue, we are hoping a huge number of U.S. forces are withdrawn. ... It depends in the next year whether the Iraqi security forces have the confidence to carry on their task without any help from them."
Another important element of the declaration for Iraq's Shiite-led government is that it commits the United States to backing the Shiite-led, democratically elected government while some U.S. military commanders and politicians have criticized the al-Maliki government as ineffectual.
"There have been calls by some military commanders in the United States that Iraq is not ripe for democracy. We wanted the commitment from the United States with this agreement that all parties will protect and support democracy in Iraq and to safeguard the constitution," Abadi said. "This sends the signal to our enemies. There is no going to back to square one."
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, Bush's top White House adviser on Iraq, said the agreement was not binding but would set the agenda for talks with Iraq over economic, diplomatic and security relations.
It was completed as the Bush administration sought to draw attention to improved security in parts of Iraq. The text calls for the United States to help protect Iraq's natural resources, including oil, and commits America to assisting Iraq on the path to a free-market economy. Lute said the message of the agreement was that "Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own, but it won't have to stand alone."
But Lute refused to close the door on the possibility of permanent military bases, saying it would be a subject for future negotiations.
He also said that as part of a long-term pact, the two countries would work toward achieving reconciliation among Iraq's warring sects, assuring all parties that the United States was an active partner and they should not "hedge their bets."
The declaration of principles also calls on the United States to promote private investment in Iraq, particularly from America, and steer further American financial and technical assistance to Iraqi institutions.
Both al-Maliki and Lute said the next step is to complete the broader pact by the end of July. That timetable would allow for additional improvements in Iraq just as the U.S. presidential election is entering its final months.
Al-Maliki said the pact would be put before the Iraqi parliament after July, giving the body time to debate the matter well ahead of the expiration of the 2008 UN Security Council resolution.
In a statement, the White House said the agreement "moves us closer to normalized, bilateral relations" with Iraq, adding that it hoped the United Nations Security Council would renew for one year the mandate for a multinational force deployed there. The current mandate expires Dec. 31.