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Pentagon chief says Iraqi drawdown on track despite troops negotiation

20 August 2011 03:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Friday the United States would keep its commitment to continuing the drawdown from Iraq, despite the new development that Iraqi leaders have reached political consensus on entering negotiations over an extended U.S. military presence in the country, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

During a roundtable with military media outlets, Panetta said the United States has "begun the drawdown, and we will continue the drawdown and we will fulfill the commitment that we are going to take all the combat forces out of Iraq."

More than 40,000 U.S. service members are now stationed in Iraq, and they are to pull out completely by the end of 2011, according to a security agreement named Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) and signed in late 2008 between Baghdad and Washington.

Panetta was asked during the roundtable if there had been progress in discussions with the Iraqi government over an extended U.S. military presence since his visit six weeks ago, according to Pentagon Spokesman George Little.

Panetta made clear that "the Iraqis have said yes to discussions about the strategic relationship beyond 2011, and what that relationship might look like," according to Little.

"My view is that they finally did say yes... it was unanimous consent among the key leaders of the country to go ahead and request that we negotiate on some kind of training, what a training presence would look like," said Panetta, according to a transcript provided by the Pentagon.

Earlier this month, the Iraqi political leaders agreed to give green light to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to hold talks with the U.S. about keeping some of its troops in Iraq beyond the end of 2011 deadline.

Maliki frequently said the SOFA cannot be renewed as stated in the agreement, but talks with the Americans are expected to let a small force of the U.S. troops to stay in Iraq beyond the deadline only for training Iraqi forces under the Strategic Framework Agreement, which was signed earlier with the SOFA between the two countries.

It remains unclear how many U.S. troops could stay in Iraq and what their mission will be. Panetta said the United States is "going to be engaging with them to try to negotiate what that presence will look like," noting the kind of training assistance and presence the U.S. forces provides will depend on what Iraq feels it needs "in order to be able to defend itself and secure itself."

Radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and a parliamentary Sunni Arab bloc have opposed to the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq after the Dec. 31 deadline for withdrawal, even as trainers for the Iraqi security forces.

Another matter posing risk for U.S. presence in Iraq is security. A series of terror attacks in seven provinces in central and northern Iraq on Monday left nearly 70 people killed and more than 260 wounded.

Panetta said the U.S. forces and Iraqi forces have made gains on the security front.

"We have engaged in a number of joint operations to go after Shia extremists who are the culprits here of trying to attack our forces, so we have made some gains in that area as well," said Panetta, noting Iraq now has about 650,000 members serving in its security forces.