IAF welcomes Obama’s speech

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The speech delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama to the Islamic world on Thursday from Cairo is reassuring for the U.S.-Iraqi relation, but it needs to be translated into effective, practical efforts on the ground, the spokesman for Iraqi Accord Front (IAF) said on Friday. “Obama’s speech maps out the next stage’s strategy and it is reassuring for the Iraqi-U.S. relations,” Saleem al-Juburi told IraqiNews.com news agency. “We hoped he explains the reasons of the U.S. presence in Iraq and mentions the mistakes the former administration made in the country,” he added. “Obama’s speech on the intention to pullout troops is reassuring but the security agreement is the one which will be applied on the ground,” al-Juburi said. In a speech to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims from Cairo on Thursday, US President Barack Obama said that the United States does not seek to stay in Iraq or Afghanistan. “We will… relentlessly confront violent extremists,” Obama said. “Because we reject the same thing that people of all faiths reject: the killing of innocent men, women, and children. And it is my first duty as President to protect the American people.” “Make no mistake: we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan,” the US president said. “We seek no military bases there.” On December 13, 2008, the Iraqi government signed a long-term agreement with the United States, known as the Status-of-Forces Agreement (SOFA) to regulate the presence and withdrawal of foreign troops after 2008. Under the agreement, a complete troop withdrawal from Iraq is supposed to take place by the end of 2011. SH (S) 1