NAJAF, Iraq (AFP)
Iraq on Tuesday said it will reject any security pact with the United States unless it sets a date for the pullout of U.S.-led foreign troops, a proposal turned down by U.S. President George W. Bush.
"We will not accept any memorandum of understanding if it does not give a specific date for a complete withdrawal of foreign troops," Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, Iraq's national security advisor, told reporters in the holy city of Najaf.
Rubaie, after paying a visit to revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said it was proving "very difficult" to set such a date.
But "the Iraqi government has spoken about its date, while the foreign party has spoken about its date," he said. "Till now we have not arrived at an agreement on this issue."
The demand for a timetable from Baghdad's Shiite-led government underlines Iraq's new hardened stand in complex negotiations aimed at striking a security deal with Washington.
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Arab ambassadors in Abu Dhabi that he was seeking a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops as part of a security agreement with Washington.
"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 was quoted as saying.
The White House reacted later on Monday by saying it was not negotiating a "hard date" for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq but it did not rule out "time-frames" discussions with Baghdad.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the talks were aimed at reaching agreement on a framework for future U.S.-Iraqi relations and on the arrangements to govern the U.S. military presence.
"It is important to understand that these are not talks on a hard date for a withdrawal," he said. "When you make an agreement," he added, however, "that doesn't mean that there won't be some understanding of time-frames."
Baghdad and Washington are negotiating a deal that would see the presence of U.S.-led forces beyond 2008 when the UN mandate which provides the legal basis for a foreign troop presence in Iraq expires.
The security pact, also known as Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), has to be signed by July 31 according to a previous agreement between Bush and Maliki. |
