Maliki: Baghdad in favour of a short-term security pact with US; Gates: More US troops to be withdrawn from Iraq and deployed to Afghanistan; US Gen.: Combat operations by US troops to cease by middle of 2009; Erdogan visits Baghdad
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    • Imponderables still surrounded the security pact being negotiated by the US with the Iraqi government with Baghdad insisting on a specific timetable for the withdrawal of US troops from the country. National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie asserted that Iraq would “not accept a memorandum of understanding without having timeline horizons for the cessation of combat operations as well as the departure of all the combat brigades1.” Prime Minister al-Maliki a day earlier on also stated on July 7 that his government was in favour of a short-term pact governing the status of US forces rather than a broad, long-term agreement2. Iraqi Vice-President Adel Abdel-Mahdi told an Arab daily that foreign troops have to be under Iraqi control, adding that Iraq, as one of the founding members of the UN, “cannot be placed under occupation3.”

    US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama cited Maliki’s statements on a withdrawal timetable to justify his own position on the issue. Obama noted that such a deadline was essential to not only “relieve pressure on our military, but also to deal with deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and to put more pressure on the Iraqi government4.” US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates on his part on July 8 stated that more US troops would be withdrawn as Iraqi forces gained greater control over the provinces. Most of these troops, Gates indicated, would be deployed to Afghanistan, which was witnessing increasing levels of violence5. Meanwhile, senior US army officer in charge of training Iraqi forces, Lt. Gen. James Dubik told the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on July 9 that US troops could cease combat operations by the middle of 20096.

    In other developments, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Baghdad during the week for talks on security and economic cooperation. Reports noted that both sides envisaged taking the volume of their bilateral trade to more than $20 billion in another 2 years, from the 2007 levels of about $3.5 billion7. Kuwait also announced that it would restore diplomatic ties with Iraq, thus becoming the third country after the UAE and Bahrain to do so.

    The US Senate meanwhile confirmed Gen. David Petraeus as the chief of the US Central Command, overseeing the theatres of war in Iraq and Afghansitan, and Lt. Gen. David Odierno as the new commander of US forces in Iraq.

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