WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus says if Iraqi leaders want U.S. troops to stay, more progress needs to be made.
The commander of Multi-National Force-Iraq said in an interview Friday on Soldiers Radio that two things need to be accomplished from an emergency political summit being held this week in Baghdad. Petraeus says that Iraqi leaders need to come up with an outlined process for governance and for agreements to be reached between Iraq's divided factions on legislation critical to national reconciliation.
"If the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi people, the Iraqi political leaders can demonstrate that there should be hope for them making the most of the opportunity, that our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are fighting to provide them, indeed there could be time put on the clock, kept on the clock to enable this endeavor to go forward,” said Petraeus, in a statement.
Iraq's top Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders were called to meet this week by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in an effort to stabilize what Petraeus referred to as political crisis.
“That’s the situation we’re in right now. We are waiting to see what the political leaders accomplish at the big summit that is ongoing in Baghdad,” he said. “We need to see now: ‘What is the progress made? … And does that indeed point to a path that will take them forward?’”
