After a surprise visit to Iraq yesterday by Condoleezza Rice it is being reported that high ranking officials of the United States and Iraqi negotiators have reached an agreement on the complete withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by 2011 if conditions in Iraq remain relatively stable.
Part of the agreement details the phase withdrawal of troops where the United States has agreed to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by next June and from the rest of the country by the end of 2011.
The three main sticking points had been the insistence by the Iraqi government that U.S. soliders and U.S. contractors not be granted full immunity from Iraqi laws, that the U.S. provide a fixed timeline of withdrawal of U.S. forces, and that all Iraqi prisoners held by the U.S. be handed over to the custody of the Iraqi government. "The Iraqi government wants to tell its people when the U.S. forces will be out of the country so they know this occupation will not last forever", said one Iraqi official.
While the exact details are not yet know it does appear that this plan is similar to the 16-18 month phased withdrawal that Barack Obama said he would adopt once he became president.
The Bush administration will not submit the agreement to Congress or seek Congressional approval but will inform Congress when a deal is reached.
This new withdrawal timetable appears to be significantly different than McCain's plan of leaving troops in Iraq for 100 years or more to which Iraqi government officials have stated off the record that they would never agree to.
CNN story can be viewed here.
