New York - The United States said Thursday that its planned
military withdrawal from Iraq would give it 'flexibility' in
Afghanistan and a chance to work out a comprehensive programme to
bring peace to the Middle East.
US Ambassador Susan Rice told the United Nations Security Council
that Iraq and the US have agreed on a timetable to pull out the more
than 150,000 US troops from Iraq.
'This carefully managed programme to ending the war in no way
diminishes America's long-term support for a sovereign, stable,
democratic and prosperous Iraq,' Rice told the council, which
convened to discuss the situation in Iraq.
'We have signed a broad agreement that sets out long-term
cooperation between the two countries, from education to trade,
technology and to meet the challenges in energy in the 21st century,'
she said.
Since taking office in January, US President Barack Obama decided
on a quicker pace of US withdrawal from Iraq and said those troops
would be shifted to Afghanistan.
Baghdad signed an agreement to terminate the presence of US armed
forces in Iraq by 2011. The Obama administration reportedly wants to
withdraw from that country sooner.
The 15-nation council heard reports about the improved security
situation in Iraq and the successful provincial elections held last
month, which Iraq's UN Ambassador Hamid al-Bayati said was proof of
democratic progress.
Al-Bayati said an estimated 500,000 Iraqis were expected to return
home this year because of the improved security situation.
He said Iraq's Minister of Displacement and Migration Abduk Samad
Rahman Sultan was recently in Syria and will visit Egypt and Lebanon
to coordinate the return of Iraqis who fled when US troops invaded
their country in March 2003 to topple dictator Saddam Hussein.
Some 220,000 Iraqis returned home last year. Up to 2 million
Iraqis have taken refuge in neighbouring countries, Europe and the
United States since 2003.
'The acceleration of improvement in the security situation in
Baghdad and other provinces has helped to return life to a normal
pace in most areas,' al-Bayati said in an address to an open session
of the council.
USA
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