Iraq to negotiate Britons over pullout – official

KARBALA / IraqiNews.com: National Security Advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie said on Sunday that Iraq will embark on negotiations with Britain on an agreement to withdraw British troops from the country. “Iraq will start a series of negotiations with the British side to sign a deal on the withdrawal of British forces and the deal will be referred to parliament to pass it or turn it down,” Rubaie said in statements to reports during a visit he paid to the holy Shiite city of Karbala. He did not reveal a date to start the negotiations. Meanwhile, Rubaie said that two cabinet committees under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki were formed to follow up the plan on the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. The Iraqi Presidential Board (PB) had rarified the long-term security pact with the United States, also known as the status of forces agreement (SOFA), which had been passed by parliament on November 27. Iraqi Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Labid Abawi and a spokesman for the British government had said Baghdad and London would enter into negotiations on the British forces’ pullout and organize their interim presence in Iraq after the UN mandate is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. Britain deploys 4.100 troops stationed in the British base at the Basra International Airport, 25 km northwest of the city. The Britons had withdrawn from their base at the Presidential Palaces in September 2007. AmR (S) 1