Iraq Repeats Insistence on Fixed Withdrawal Date

A U.S. soldier secures the scene of a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Iraq wants nearly all U.S. combat troops to be gone by the end of 2011. (By Khalid Mohammed -- Associated Press)

Haider Abadi, a Shiite lawmaker who is a senior adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Obama's stated goal of bringing American troops home relatively quickly is in line with the Iraqi government's vision.

"He's been saying all along that he wants to withdraw U.S. forces within 15 months," Abadi said in a phone interview Thursday night. "That fits with the Iraqi proposal."

Months ago, Obama said he would like to withdraw American troops within 16 months of taking office, but as the security situation has improved, he has stopped citing that time frame.

Abadi said it remains unclear how Obama's election will ultimately affect the negotiations. "It can go either way," he said. The Bush administration, the lawmaker explained, might have refrained from making some potentially controversial decisions during the run-up to the U.S. election. Conversely, he said, "maybe the political will in Washington will be weaker" now that the election is over.

Iraqi officials say it is also unclear how much support there is in the 275-member parliament for the agreement because many lawmakers are afraid to reveal their positions publicly. The Kurdish bloc, which has 53 seats, supports an agreement. Thirty lawmakers who are followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr are staunchly opposed.

U.S. and Iraqi officials say Iran's government has been trying to persuade Iraqi lawmakers to reject the agreement. Lawmakers are also reluctant to express support for extending the presence of the U.S. military in Iraq for years because they fear it would hurt them politically in provincial and national elections scheduled to take place next year.

While security in Iraq has improved dramatically in recent months, many U.S. and Iraqi officials describe the gains as tenuous and fear that political tensions leading up to, and following, next year's elections could unleash further violence.

Seeking a renewal of the U.N. Security Council resolution that permits the presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is an option the Iraqi government would like to avoid at all costs, Dabbagh said. "The U.N. mandate gives them a free hand in everything," he said.

Dabbagh said Maliki sent Obama a congratulatory letter Wednesday. He said many Iraqi leaders who initially favored Sen. John McCain of Arizona came to support Obama after the Democrat visited Iraq this summer because they realized their vision of the U.S. presence in Iraq was more in line with Obama's than McCain's.

"They respect him and feel that he can be a good friend," Dabbagh said, describing Iraqi leaders' feelings toward Obama.

While acknowledging that Iraq continues to rely heavily on the U.S. military in areas such as air support and intelligence gathering, Iraqi officials want Americans to stop acting unilaterally in Iraq. For example, Dabbagh said, the U.S. military's multimillion-dollar effort to influence public opinion through television ads, billboards and other means should become a joint effort.

"We don't have a hand in all the propaganda that is being done now," he said. "It could be done much better when Iraqis have a word and Iraqis can advise."