According to this report from Iraq’s Al-Sabaah, an anonymous source from Iraq’s leading political party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, has revealed to the newspaper that a clause in the new Status of Forces Agreement with the United States, which the U.S. is expected to respond to within the next 24 hours, reads:
“U.S. combat forces will withdraw from all cities, villages and towns after they are handed over to the control of the Iraqi security forces, and that the withdrawal will begin no later than July 30, 2009, unless competent Iraqi authorities request otherwise;” and, “American troops will completely withdraw from the territory of Iraq no longer than the end of 2011.”
How reliable is this information? Al-Sabaah has been reliable in the past, for example when it was the first newspaper in the world to reveal, ‘Tentative Deal Reached for Withdrawal of U.S. Forces.’
Translated By Nicolas Dagher
September 7, 2008
Iraq – Al-Sabaah – Original Article (Arabic)
U.S. forces that have been deployed on the streets of Baghdad will begin a “slow, gradual” withdrawal, as a step to handover all security responsibilities to Iraqi forces.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council [one of Iraq’s most powerful political parties ] confirmed that Washington would respond to the Iraqi draft within a period not to exceed 48 hours. A senior source revealed exclusively to Al-Sabaah that starting next February, some of the U.S. military units deployed in areas of Baghdad will redeploy to camps outside the city away from the city center.
The senior source added that he hoped – depending on conditions on the ground – that these units would complete their withdrawal from the capital before next July. But he pointed out that they would be ready to execute missions if requested to do so by the Maliki government.
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