BAGHDAD — Iraq’s political leaders gave the government the green light Tuesday to begin negotiating a deal with the U.S. to keep American troops in the country past the end of the year to train Iraqi security forces.
But Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said a final agreement is still far from settled, and cautioned that Baghdad could still insist the U.S. military leave by the end of 2011 as required under a 2008 security agreement.
“The government still might not do it (allow U.S. troops to stay),” Zebari told The Associated Press after the closed-door discussions.
“This is a politically highly charged issue, and there was division,” he said.
“But this meeting unified all the political leaders to back the government and start the negotiations.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.