Region | Iraq
Agreement reached with US on 2011 pullout , says Al Maliki
The United States on Monday denied that a final deal with Baghdad had been reached in negotiations on a security pact to end foreign military presence in Iraq.
- Agencies
- Published: 17:34 August 25, 2008
Baghdad: The United States on Monday denied that a final deal with Baghdad had been reached in negotiations on a security pact to end foreign military presence in Iraq.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki earlier said that an agreement to end all foreign military presence in the region by 2011 had been drafted.
"There is an agreement actually reached, reached between the two parties on a fixed date which is the end of 2011 to end any foreign presence on Iraqi soil," Al Maliki said in a speech to tribal leaders in the Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
But, Washington said the deal was still a draft agreement and was not final.
"What the negotiators agreed on was a draft agreement," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "It still has to go through a number of levers in the Iraqi political system before we actually have an agreement from the Iraqi side," and President Bush had to sign off on it, Wood said.
"Until we have a deal, we don't have a deal," he said. He declined to comment on 2011, which Maliki said was the agreed date to end any foreign military presence in Iraq.
On a visit to Baghdad last week US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated that no final agreement had been reached.
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