Middle Alliance rejects extension of U.S. troops

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Legislature of Iraq’s al-Wasat (Middle) Alliance, Walid Abboud, has expressed his Alliance’s rejection of the extension of the U.S. occupation forces presence in Iraq after the end of 2011, confirming that the Strategic Agreement, signed between both countries, included an item to “train the Iraqi forces and prepare them to take over the security mission after the departure of the American Army.”   “The issue of the departure of the American forces from Iraq has become a mass and political demand; hence, it is necessary that all political forces demand their departure through a united position towards this issue,” Abboud told IraqiNews.com news agency.   Abboud said that “the Agreement calls for the departure of the American forces by the end of the current year; so, it is necessary that the American troops prepare for the handing over of the security dossier to the Iraqi forces.”   “The Agreement obliges the American side to train the Iraqi troops and prepare them to take over from the American Army after its departure,” Abboud said, calling on the United States to “commit itself towards the Security Agreement, it concluded with Iraq, in order to gain credibility in Iraq and outside.”   Noteworthy is that the American Combat Troops had withdrawn from Iraq at the end of last August, according to the Security Agreement, signed between Baghdad and Washington at the end of 2008, whilst the remaining 50,000 non-combat U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw by the end of the current year.   SKH (TR)/SR 358