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 |  Subject: The good: Most non-U.S. troops leaving Iraq  Sat Dec 06, 2008 9:53 pm | |
| BAGHDAD: The majority of non-U.S. troops that were part of the multinational coalition in Iraq will withdraw in the next couple of weeks or have already done so because they will no longer have the authority to operate here when the UN resolution authorizing their presence expires Dec. 31.
The Tongans ended their deployment on Friday, the Azerbaijanis a few days ago, the Poles last month, the Macedonians and Bosnians in the past couple of weeks. The South Koreans and Georgians have also left; the latter somewhat earlier than planned when fighting broke out in their country last summer. In many cases these contingents have fewer than 200 soldiers here, although some, such as the Poles, had about 900.
That will leave only the British and possibly two or three other countries with very small numbers of troops in Iraq along with the Americans. Since the British will stay on past the end of the year, the Iraqi and British government are holding intensive negotiations on a withdrawal agreement for British troops. The British have 4,100 soldiers here, the vast majority stationed in Basra.
The British agreement, like the U.S. one just approved, would go into effect at the end of this month, when the United Nations resolution expires that authorizes and governs the presence of multinational forces in Iraq. Still unclear, however, is whether the British will pursue a formal withdrawal agreement similar to the U.S. one, which required parliamentary approval, or put in place a less formal protocol that would not need parliamentary approval.
"The two sides started negotiations a month ago to reach an understanding between the two sides on the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq," Labid Abawi, under secretary of the Iraq Foreign Ministry, said in an interview with the semi-official government Web site Aswat-al-Iraq.
A diplomat at the British Embassy in Baghdad who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media said that the negotiations were continuing but that the mission of British forces here would be dramatically reduced by early next year. After that, British forces will be almost exclusively involved in training Iraqi troops, according to Iraqi officials.
"There's an end-of-year deadline, but we hope to be able to make an announcement soon," the British diplomat said. "We expect that our forces will complete most of their tasks in Iraq in the early months of 2009, and following that there will be a fundamental change in the nature of our mission in Iraq."
In contrast to the fraught discussions over the U.S. troop withdrawal agreement, lawmakers appear to think that if there is an agreement, it will readily win approval and that quite possibly because of the small number of British soldiers they might be able to agree on a protocol.
"There won't be more than 500 British soldiers in Iraq after Jan. 1, 2009," said Abbas al-Bayati, a member of Parliament's security committee. "With such low numbers, we won't need more than a temporary protocol between the British and Iraqi ministries of defense to authorize their presence.
"The British have already reduced their forces in the country. They know that they are expected to withdraw by the end of the year, except for a small number who will remain to train our forces and develop their skills."
The Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, met with the British prime minister's foreign policy adviser, Simon McDonald, on Monday, and talks are continuing, according to Aswat al-Iraq.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/05/africa/05iraq.php |
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