Monday International News

US, Iraq scale back security
deal plans: report
Baghdad
US and Iraqi negotiators have ended efforts to reach a formal security pact before the president, George W Bush, leaves office in favour of an interim deal, the Washington Post said on Sunday, citing senior US officials.
The two sides had been negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement that would provide a legal basis for US troops to remain when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year.
But in the past week Iraqi leaders have spoken of only agreeing what they call a memorandum of understanding. Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki has also raised for the first time the idea of setting a timetable for US troops to leave Iraq.
The Washington Post quoted one US official close to the negotiations as saying ‘we are talking about dates,’ even though Bush has previously rebuffed calls for a timetable.
Iraq is a major issue in November’s presidential election battle between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.
McCain supports the Bush administration’s current strategy, while Obama has called for a timetable for withdrawal. The Iraqi vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, added his support for a withdrawal timetable.
‘Iraqis must know when the American and other forces will leave Iraqi land. It is our right to know, and know the truth of where the situation stands, if there is an intention for American forces to leave or not,’ Hashemi told Iraqiya state television in an interview broadcast late on Saturday.
The Post said the ‘bridge’ security document would be limited in both time and scope and would allow basic US military operations to continue once the UN mandate ended.
Iraq has rejected a number of Washington’s demands, insisting they infringe on the country’s sovereignty.
The document now under discussion with Iraq was likely to cover only 2009, the Post said.