AFP/Washington
The US said yesterday Iraq had agreed to keeping US troops in the country beyond a year-end deadline for withdrawal, but Baghdad insisted the issue is still under negotiation. In an interview with two US newspapers, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that the Iraqis had made up their mind to extend the presence of American troops. “My view is that they finally did say, ‘Yes,’” Panetta was quoted as saying by Stars and Stripes. Iraqi political leaders announced on August 3 that they would open talks with the US over a possible training mission after 2011 but have yet to say definitively if some American troops would remain. Under the terms of a 2008 security agreement, all of the roughly 46,000 US troops still in Iraq must pull out by the end of the year unless both countries forge a new deal. In Baghdad, the Iraqi premier’s office promptly rejected Panetta’s account. “We have not yet agreed on the issue of keeping training forces,” Ali Mussawi, media adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, told AFP after Panetta’s remarks. “The negotiations are ongoing, and these negotiations have not been finalised,” he said. The US military presence remains a delicate political issue in Iraq, and anti-US Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has warned of “war” if American forces stay beyond 2011. Both US and Iraqi military officers, however, acknowledge Iraq’s forces need outside assistance to defend the country’s air space, ports and borders. While negotiations continue on the details of a training mission, the planned withdrawal of US combat troops by the end of 2011 will proceed, Panetta said. “We will fulfil the commitment that we are going to take all of the combat forces out of Iraq,” Panetta said. Shortly after taking over as Pentagon chief on July 1, Panetta voiced frustration in a visit to Baghdad, urging Iraqi leaders to “Dammit, make a decision” about a future mission for US troops.