Baghdad, April 25: Iraq’s Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has informed the visiting U.S.
Chief of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, Admiral Mike Mullen, that the remaining American troops were to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, according to the Security Agreement, signed between the two countries in 2011, an Iraqi Legislature said on Sunday.
“There is an Agreement, concluded between Iraq and the United States, reiterating that the U.S.
forces must leave Iraq by the end of 2011,” National Coalition MP, Ali al-Allaq, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that “the Prime Minister had informed the U.S.
Chief of Staff of the U.S.
Armed Forces, Admiral Mike Mullen, that the American forces must leave, according to the said Agreement, because there is no need for their presence, as the Iraqi forces are able to execute the security dossier.”
The U.S.
Combat troops have left Iraq at the end of August last, according to the Security Agreement, signed between Baghdad and Washington at the end of 2008, provided that the remaining non-combat troops, estimated at 50,000, would leave by the end of the current year.
“Mike Mullen himself had announced that the Iraqi government had not informed him about the extension of the U.S.
troops presence in Iraq, and that the talk about the extension is not necessary, with the presence of the Agreement,” Allaq said, adding that “all members of the National Coalition refuse the presence of the U.S.
troops in Iraq and demand the departure of the last U.S.
soldier, according to the said Agreement.”
–Agencies