IRAQ:BAGHDAD AND Washington are said to be nearing agreement on the staged withdrawal of US forces from Iraq over the next five years.
According to Iraqi officials close to the negotiations, the proposal involves the transfer by the end of 2008 to Iraqi control of portions of Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, containing Iraqi government offices, the hall where parliament meets and the embassies of the US and other states.
US troops would be pulled out of all Iraqi cities and deployed to bases by June 2009 and combat troops would depart "by 2011". Non-combat support personnel would leave during 2013.
A senior US official confirmed that the talks were approaching completion, the document includes a "time horizon", and specific deadlines are being considered.
The Bush administration's acceptance of a timeframe for a phased withdrawal marks a sharp reversal of policy. Until last month, the administration had refused to fix deadlines for redeployments. However, president Bush and Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed to set a "general time horizon" for ending the US occupation.
The administration came under Iraqi and domestic pressure to agree to deadlines after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Mr Maliki agreed on October 2010 for the departure of US combat units.
Iraqi officials also say that under the proposed agreement, private contractors would be subject to Iraqi law and tried in Iraqi courts, US forces would require Iraqi permission to detain Iraqis, and US troops would be granted legal immunity only when they are on US bases. During combat operations they would be subject to both Iraqi and US military law.
If adopted, these provisions would make the US-Iraq status of forces agreement the most limiting for the US of all such agreements concluded with allies since the second World War. However, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice called on Mr Maliki to be more flexible, particularly on the immunity issue, during a lengthy phone call last Wednesday.
This issue remains unresolved to the satisfaction of both parties. Iraq considers any type of immunity an affront to its sovereignty, while the US is determined to secure special status for its troops although it seems to have conceded the Iraqi demand that this cannot be extended to the tens of thousands of contractors working with US forces in the country.
The Shia-led government has successfully held out for a schedule because no deal would be approved by parliament without a timeframe for withdrawal.
Furthermore, Mr Maliki's Dawa party and its ally the Shia Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council could lose power in coming provincial elections if they agreed to Washington's initial demand for a long-term deal which granted the US military wide powers, bases, immunity and freedom of action.
