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Iraq's Zebari sees no dramatic U.S. disengagement in '09
Reuters - Saturday, January 24
By Zerin Elci
ANKARA - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Friday he did not expect a dramatic U.S. troop disengagement from Iraq this year given the country will hold a series of elections that will test its gains in security.
Senior U.S. officials said on Thursday the new administration of President Barak Obama had not yet decided whether to withdraw combat troops from Iraq in 16 months, as he promised during his election campaign.
"Really we are safe I think for 2009," Zebari told a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan. "This is a very, very critical year for our future, stabilisation and for the political system."
Iraq holds provincial elections on January 31 and a parliamentary vote at the end of the year, seen as key tests of spreading security after years of sectarian bloodshed and insurgency unleashed by the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
"That's why, I personally do not believe there would be any dramatic disengagement from Iraq because the stakes are too high for the United States, for Iraqis, for the region, for everybody," he said.
Zebari said his government had been in touch with the new U.S. administration.
"We are sure that the policy of President Obama would be one of continuity," he said.
Obama met with Defence Secretary Robert Gates, senior military officers and heard the U.S. ambassador to Iraq on a videolink on Wednesday, his first full day in office, to discuss the war.
He opposed the war, which made his predecessor George W. Bush deeply unpopular and in which tens of thousands of Iraqis have died.
Under a security agreement signed between Iraq and the previous U.S. administration, the 143,000 or so U.S. troops in the country will have to withdraw by the end of 2011.
U.S. military officials say their planning includes the possibility of a speedier drawdown, more in line with the 16 months proposed during the campaign by Obama.
In Tehran, Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwaffaq al-Rubaie told a news conference Iraq would cope just fine if Obama withdrew U.S. troops from Iraq faster than envisaged under the bilateral security agreement.
"More than ever, we are ready to rule our country and preserve its security," the Iraqi official said.
"Even before the 16 months time period pledged by Obama, we are ready to take over the responsibility."
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