Iraq PM: ‘Our forces will be ready by June ’07’

AMMAN, Jordan - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday that his country's forces would be able to assume security command by June 2007 — which could allow the United States to start withdrawing its troops.

"I cannot answer on behalf of the U.S. administration but I can tell you that from our side our forces will be ready by June 2007," Maliki told ABC television after meeting President Bush on Thursday in Jordan.

Maliki was replying to a question about whether U.S. troops could start withdrawing at that time.

Speeding up the handover
Bush pledged Thursday that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq to strengthen the authority of embattled prime minister and said the two agreed to speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces.

“One of his frustrations with me is that he believes that we’ve been slow about giving him the tools necessary to protect the Iraqi people,” Bush said. “Today we had a meeting that will accelerate the capacity for the prime minister to do the hard work necessary to help stop this violence.”

The two also agreed in high-stakes talks here Thursday that Iraq should not be partitioned into separate, semiautonomous zones.

“The prime minister made clear that splitting his country into parts, as some have suggested, is not what the Iraqi people want, and that any partition of Iraq would only lead to an increase in sectarian violence,” Bush said after he and the Iraqi prime minister met for nearly two and a half hours.

"I agree," Bush said.

Thursday's talks coincided with reports that the Iraq Study Group will recommend that the U.S. military shift from combat to a support role in Iraq, and will call for a regional conference that could lead to direct U.S. talks with Iran and Syria, both accused by Washington of fomenting violence in their neighbor.

A source familiar with the deliberations of the independent, bipartisan group told Reuters that the idea was for U.S. combat forces to pull back to bases in Iraq and in the region over the next year or so. “It’s basically a redeployment,” the source said.

The panel is to present its report to Bush on Dec. 6.

A role for Iraq's neighbors?
While Bush continued to reject drawing Iran into helping Iraq in its struggle for peace, al-Maliki left the door open for countries like Iran and Syria to play a part.

“We are ready to cooperate with everybody who believes that the need to cooperate with the national unity government, especially our neighbors,” al-Maliki said.

He said that “Iraq is for Iraqis and its borders will be sound.”

The president also acknowledged the pressure at home for the beginning of U.S. troop withdrawals but he said, “We’ll be in Iraq until the job is complete, at the request of a sovereign government elected by the people.”

He said the United States — which now has about 140,000 troops in Iraq —will stay “to get the job done so long as the government wants us there.”

Bush said he wanted to begin troop withdrawals “as soon as possible. But I’m a realist because I understand how tough it is inside of Iraq.”

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