Baghdad and Washington have yet to agree on granting immunity to American coachesafter the withdrawal
(French - Archive)
The United States denied a report told The Associated Press talked about it made a final decision to withdraw all its forces almost out of Iraq by the due date for the end of this year,unveiled a spokesman for Sadr's willingness France, China and Russia to train Iraqi forces instead of U.S. experts.
Said White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said President Barack Obama saidrepeatedly that Washington is seriously committed to maintaining its agreement with the Iraqi government to withdraw all its troops by the end of this year, but at the same timebuilding a comprehensive partnership with Iraq under the Strategic Framework Agreementinclude the security relationship is strong, he pointed out that the discussions with the Iraqis on the nature of this relationship continues.
The Ministry of Defense issued a statement almost identical, but the spokesman George Little also said that reports that talk about reaching a final decision on the relationship of training with the Iraqi government is not unfounded.
A senior official in the administration of President Obama said told The Associated Press in Washington on Saturday that all U.S. troops will leave Iraq by end of December / January next under the security agreement between the two countries with the exception of about 160 soldiers related to the work at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
For his part, said a senior U.S. military official said his country would be able to send a military mission to contribute to the training of Iraqi forces if requested to do so.
Leave the BrigadeThis comes at a time when Washington announced that a brigade of U.S. troops will leave Iraq, was scheduled to stay there until August / August 2012 to the United States within weeks.
The announcement of the departure of the brigade after reports that the Iraqi government may not grant immunity to the forces that remain after the end of this year, a prerequisite to Washington to keep the troops there.
According to a report broadcast by the network "CNN's" American Saturday evening news, the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, First Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas, will return to the United States just weeks after he arrived in Iraq in August / August. This came at a meeting between the families of U.S. soldiers and a military official reporter attended "CNN."
The network quoted the official as saying that what happened is that the United States and Iraq did not reach an agreement.
Iraqi positionIraqi President Jalal Talabani said last week that Iraqi political leaders agreed to keep the five thousand U.S. troops in the country after the end of 2011, as trainers, without immunity, according to the newspaper "Sabah" official.
Talabani said the Iraqi government is awaiting a formal response from the United States on the proposal, pointing out that all units of the Iraqi army had been informed that they are not capable of running modern weapons have been imported in recent times, which requires the survival of some American soldiers to work as trainers.
In a related development of the cleric Moqtada al-Sadr three conditions to allow the Americans to remain to train Iraqi forces after the U.S. withdrawal.
A press statement issued by Sadr's office in Najaf on Saturday that three conditions are: to be training a new contract, and that the training is directly with the Americans, in addition to demand that U.S. forces to pay compensation for damages inflicted on the Iraqi infrastructure.
The opinion of the chest in response to questions posed to him on his agreement the leaders of Iraqi political blocs recently, the approval of the survival of U.S. trainers to train Iraqi troops on how to use the weapons that had been contracted to buy from America.
Other alternativesIn the context the Sadrist spokesman Sheikh Salah al-Obeidi's readiness France, China and Russia to train Iraqi forces instead of U.S. experts, emphasizing pursuit of Moqtada al-Sadr to search for a replacement for the Americans.
He said al-Obeidi told the French press that "there are a lot of countries look to the U.S. occupation of Iraq as the main cause of delay in providing aid to Iraq and progress in any step towards the reconstruction in Iraq, whether or arming soldiers and give the experience."
He emphasized that France, Russia and China expressed its willingness to provide, through meetings with the ambassadors but did not find a response to demands from Iraqi officials did not give an opportunity to provide assistance.
And negotiates U.S. and Iraqi officials on the prospects for the survival of up to several thousand American soldiers, but the main sticking point is Iraq's refusal to grant legal immunity of those military, as demanded by Washington.
This case may lead to the collapse of the agreement reached, but a sensitive issue for the Iraqis who witnessed the abuses by American soldiers and contractors in more than eight years since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
After the end of combat operations last year due to departure of the last American forces, and the 44 thousand troops Iraq by the end of the year under the terms of a bilateral security pact.
But the Obama administration insists that no decision is reached on the relationship of training with Iraq or the number of American soldiers who may remain after the deadline of December 31 / December if any of them will remain at all.
Source: Agencies
