US Troop Withdrawal Would Be Complete In Three Years Under New Plan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Says

In an interview with The Times of London, Iraq's Foreign Minister said that a new draft agreement with the United States would have troops out of the country in three years, with withdrawals beginning next summer.

In one of the most detailed insights yet into the content of the deal, Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, has also told The Times that the US military would be barred from unilaterally mounting attacks inside Iraq from next year.

In addition, the power of arrest for US soldiers would be curbed by the need to hand over any detainee to a new, US-Iraqi committee. Troops would require the green light from this joint command before conducting any operation.

The Pentagon refused to comment last night on the proposals laid out in the draft agreement between Baghdad and Washington that covers the status of US forces beyond 2008. Britain will strike its own deal with Iraq but Gordon Brown hopes to withdraw most British troops from Iraq by next summer, reducing the number of soldiers from 4,100 to "a few hundred" by then.

Click here to read the whole story.