Iraq insists on US withdrawal timetable
9/7/08
Iraq will not accept any security agreement with the United States unless it includes dates for the withdrawal of foreign forces, the government’s national security adviser said on Tuesday. The comments by Mowaffaq Al Rubaie underscore the US-backed government’s hardening stance towards a deal with Washington that will provide a legal basis for US troops to operate when a UN mandate expires at the end of the year. On Monday, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki appeared to catch Washington off-guard by suggesting for the first time that a timetable be set for the departure of US forces under the deal being negotiated, which he called a memorandum of understanding. Rubaie said Iraq was waiting “impatiently for the day when the last foreign soldier leaves Iraq”. “We can’t have a memorandum of understanding with foreign forces unless it has dates and clear horizons determining the departure of foreign forces. We’re unambiguously talking about their departure,” Rubaie said in the holy Shiite city of Najaf.
See: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=9180
Iraq insists on withdrawal timetable
8/7/08
Iraq’s national security adviser says his country will not accept any deal with the United States unless the agreement sets specific dates for the withdrawal of US-led forces. The comments by Mouwaffak Al Rubaie come a day after Iraq’s prime minister first said publicly that he expects the pending troop deal with the United States to have some type of timetable for withdrawal. President Bush has said he opposes a timetable. Al-Rubaie told reporters Tuesday the country “will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn’t have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces.”
See: http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10227179.html
No progress on freeing 100 Yemeni detainees
9/7/09
The United States and Yemen remain at odds over a proposal to release more than one-third of the detainees from Guantanamo Bay, officials said Monday, even as the Bush administration wrestles with the future of the military prison. About 100 of the approximately 270 prisoners remaining at Guantanamo Bay are Yemeni nationals. A US delegation visited the capital city of Saan’a last week to discuss the possible transfer of a few detainees to Yemen. Yemeni officials hoped to negotiate the release of all but the most dangerous prisoners. “There is no progress at all,” said Waleed Alshahari, an official following the talks for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. “The situation remains as it is.”
See: http://www.gulfnews.com/news/gulf/yemen/10227219.html
Tags: Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Terrorism, USA, Yemen