U.S.-Iraqi pact opens horizons for bilateral relations

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani said that the U.S.-Iraqi agreement will open new horizons for bilateral relations in all fields. “The security pact is an important factor in maintaining and strengthening relations in several fields,” Talabani said in a presidential statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency following his meeting with U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden in Baghdad on Monday. The U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), approved by the Iraqi government in late 2008, establishes that U.S. combat forces will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, subject to possible further negotiations which could delay withdrawal and a referendum scheduled for mid-2009 in Iraq which may require U.S. forces to completely leave by the middle of 2010. On Monday (12/1) afternoon, Biden arrived on a surprise visit to Iraq and met with Talabani and his deputy, Adel Abdelmahdi. Biden voted for the 2003 invasion of Iraq but later became a critic of the war and the way in which President George W. Bush was executing it. He is best known in Iraq as the author of a 2006 plan to divide the country into self-governing Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish enclaves — an idea that offended many Iraqi politicians and was quietly put on the back burner as violence ebbed. SS (S) 1