Iraqi govt to run most of country by year end: PM: Foreign troops to go by 2010: Blair
BAGHDAD, May 22: The new Iraqi prime minister said on Monday his forces could be in charge in most of Iraq by December and officials with visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair said all foreign troops may be gone within four years.
Mr Maliki said two British-run provinces in the south could be handed to Iraqi security forces next month and a statement by the two governments issued afterwards said: “By the end of this year, responsibility for much of Iraq’s territorial security should have been transferred to Iraqi control.”
Demonstrating support for Nuri al-Maliki by flying in two days after a national unity government of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds was sworn in, Mr Blair would not be drawn on deadlines.
“What we want to see in Iraq is a sovereign and independent nation ... with Iraqis in control of every aspect, including their security,” Mr Blair told a news conference.
The United States says it is too soon to discuss a timetable for pulling out its 133,000 troops, which suffer daily casualties.
Two bomb attacks killed nine people in Baghdad on Monday, underlining a warning from Mr Maliki that Iraq faces civil war if his government fails to rein in ‘militias’ — generally code for armed groups run by Islamists in his cabinet.
Washington and London count on the tough-talking Maliki, who has pledged ‘maximum force against terrorists’, to start tackling widespread guerilla and sectarian violence.
They hope that the participation of the Sunni community in his government will help defuse the resistance to US-led forces.
‘NEW BEGINNING’: The installation after months of sectarian argument of Iraq’s first full-term government since 2003 has focused attention on plans for pulling out some 150,000 foreign troops, which include a 7,000-strong British military presence.
“It’s been longer and harder than any of us would have wanted it to be, but this is a new beginning,” said Mr Blair, who has spent much political capital on the controversial invasion.
A senior British official accompanying him said London hoped all but some non-combatant foreign soldiers could be withdrawn by the time of the next Iraqi election in 2009, provided the country moved in the right direction.
“The aim is to take Iraq to a position where the multinational force is able to withdraw during its (the government’s) period in office,” the official said.
It was the firmest statement yet from one of the two main allies in the invasion of Iraq on a date for pulling out troops.
