White House Claims Iraqi Demand For Withdrawal Timeline Is Transcription Error

Today, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki suggested having a timetable for the withdrawal of coalition troops. "The direction we are taking is to have a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or to have a timetable for their withdrawal," Maliki's office quoted him as saying.

The State Department also hedged on whether the Bush administration would listen to Maliki. In a briefing today, spokesperson Sean McCormack said the remark may have been a transcription error:

McCORMACK: Well, that's really the part -- the point at which I would seek greater clarification in terms of remarks. I've seen the same press reports that you have, but I haven't yet had an opportunity to get greater clarify as to exactly to what Mr. Maliki was referring or if, in fact, that's an accurate reporting of what he said.

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