BAGHDAD — American officials said Wednesday that an announcement by the Iraqi government that it was ready to open formal discussions with the United States about keeping some troops in Iraq after the end of the year was a positive first step toward resolving the question about the American military’s future presence here.
The Iraqi government said early Wednesday morning that it could begin talks about keeping a limited training force in the country. Under a 2008 agreement between the two countries, about 48,000 American troops remaining in Iraq must leave by the end of 2011. As part of that agreement, the Iraqi government ultimately decides if it wants some troops to remain.
American officials were encouraged by the announcement, because the Iraqi government has been paralyzed for months by political bickering, which has delayed a decision on whether any American forces will stay past the deadline.
Senior United States military officials have been warning the Iraqi government since the spring that because of the logistics in moving the American troops, the Iraqis had very little time to decide whether American forces would stay after this year. And while the Americans have been privately telling their Iraqi counterparts that they want some troops to stay and the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has been privately telling the Americans that it wants their Army to stay, a number of Iraqi political factions have publicly resisted the idea of a continued American military presence.
A United States Embassy official said the Iraqi government’s announcement was an important political step, because nearly all the blocs in Parliament supported it. A significant exception was the Sadrists, led by Moktada al-Sadr, an anti-American Shiite cleric who has called on his followers to attack American forces if they remain after the deadline.
The embassy official said that the possibility of American troops staying beyond this year “does not reflect the presence of American combat troops doing anything like what they’ve done in the past here. The Iraqi combat forces are quite capable of internal defense.”
The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to discuss publicly any negotiations with the Iraqi government.
Iraqis are concerned that their military, which has purchased tanks and weapons from the United States, is still not prepared to fight a conventional battle against its neighbors, the official said.
“Every other military force in the region has that capability,” the official said. “It’s perfectly reasonable for these people to have some limited means to defend themselves against conventional forces.”
Violence continued across Iraq on Wednesday. A series of explosions in the city of Ramadi killed 8 people and wounded 16.
Source: nytimes.com