Gates endorses pause in troop withdrawals; US military: Attacks across Iraq have fallen by over 60 per cent since June 2007; Iraqi Parliament passes the 2008 budget as well as a key reconciliation measure
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    • Debates over the American troop presence continued with US Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Baghdad advocating a pause in the withdrawals to prevent the situation from worsening. Reports indicated that the number of American troops would not probably drop below the pre-surge levels of 130,000 during the current year1. Iraq’s National Security Advisor Mowaffaq al-Rubaie however disagreed over the need for a pause in the withdrawals and noted that Iraqi forces had taken over responsibilities in nine of Iraq's 18 provinces, and that they hoped to control all the provinces 18 before the end of the year2. The US military on its part asserted that attacks across Iraq had fallen by over 60 per cent since June 2007, on account of the troop surge while Iraqi forces claimed that attacks in Baghdad had fallen by over 80 per cent3.

    In a significant development, the Iraqi Parliament passed the nearly $50 billion budget for 2008 as well as granted amnesty to prisoners held without charges for over 6 months. It also approved a law defining provincial powers and requiring elections to provinces to be held before October 1, 20084.

    In other developments, Iran postponed the fourth round of talks with the US on Iraq that were scheduled to be held on February 15. Earlier rounds of discussions were held in May, July, and August 2007. The postponement was announced two days after the assassination of Hezbollah’s Imad Moughniyah in Damascus.

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