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Iraqi leaders approve security agreement

Published: Dec. 4, 2008 at 9:12 AM

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Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari (4th,L) and U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker (3rd,L) sign the Iraq-United States security pact on November 17, 2008 at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, Iraq. In the deal US troops will be expected to withdraw from the streets of Iraqi towns by next year, leaving Iraq by the end of 2011. The pact must still be approved by the Iraqi parliament, but Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said he expected this to happen by the end of the month. (UPI Photo/HO/Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

BAGHDAD, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Iraq's Presidency Council on Thursday approved a security agreement that oversees U.S. troop presence in Iraq through 2011.

"We welcome today's ratification by Iraq's Presidency Council of the Strategic Framework Agreement and Security Agreement," U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker and U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno said in a statement issued from Baghdad.

The Status of Forces Agreement provides that U.S. combat forces will leave Iraqi cities and towns by next summer and be completely out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

The agreement will take effect Jan. 1, the day after a U.N. mandate on international military presence in Iraq expires.

Crocker and Odierno, commander of the multinational forces in Iraq, said in the statement the United States would support Iraq's request before the U.N. Security Council for continued protection of the country's assets. They said the United States also anticipated stronger cooperation on issues such as economics, energy, health and the environment.

"And we look forward ... to the continued reduction in U.S. forces and the normalization of bilateral relations as two sovereign and co-equal nations," the two said in the statement.

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