US President George W. Bush signed a deal setting the foundation for a potential long-term US troop presence in Iraq, with details to be negotiated over matters that have defined the war debate at home -- how many US forces will stay in the country, and for how long.
The agreement signed on Monday between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki confirms that the US and Iraq will hash out an "enduring" relationship in military, economic and political terms.
Details of that relationship will be negotiated next year, with a completion goal of July, when the US intends to finish withdrawing the five combat brigades sent this year as part of the troop buildup that has helped curb sectarian violence.
PHOTO: AFP
"What US troops are doing, how many troops are required to do that, are bases required, which partners will join them -- all these things are on the negotiating table," said Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Bush's adviser on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The proposal underlines how the US and Iraq are exploring what their relationship might look like once the US significantly draws down its troop presence. It comes as a Democratic Congress -- unsuccessfully, so far -- prods Bush to withdraw troops faster than he wants.
Bush and al-Maliki signed the new US-Iraq "declaration of principles" during a secure video conference on Monday morning.
Al-Maliki, in a televised address, said his government would ask the UN to renew the mandate for the multinational force for one final time with its authorization to end next year.
The US-Iraq agreement will replace the present UN mandate regulating the presence of the US-led forces in Iraq. Al-Maliki said the agreement provides for US support for the "democratic regime in Iraq against domestic and external dangers."
It also would help the Iraqi government thwart any attempt to suspend or repeal a constitution drafted with US help and adopted in a nationwide vote in 2005. That appeared to be a reference to any attempt to remove the government by violence or in a coup.
Al-Maliki said the renewal of the multinational forces' mandate was conditional on the repeal of what he called restrictions on Iraqi sovereignty introduced in 1990 by the UN Security Council to punish Iraq for invading neighboring Kuwait.
The new agreement would not signal an end to the US mission in Iraq. But it could change the rules under which US soldiers operate and give the Iraqis full responsibity for internal security.
Meanwhile, in Baghdad, US troops at a roadblock in the capital city fired on a minibus carrying bank employees to work yesterday, killing as many as four passengers, Iraqi officials said. The US military said it was aware of the report.
The shooting took place in northern Baghdad's Shaab neighborhood, known as a Shiite militia stronghold, as the driver was collecting employees to go to work at Rasheed bank, police said.
US troops fired when the bus reached the US roadblock and tried to drive through, killing four passengers -- including three women, police and hospital officials said.
Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman, said a Finance Ministry bus came under fire, and one woman was killed and five passengers injured.
"We do not know what happened and we asked the multinational forces to investigate the event," Khalaf said.
The dead and injured were taken to Kindi Hospital, hospital officials said.
The police and hospital officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to release information about the shooting.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion