UK seeks security agreement with Iraq

While Iraq and the US are negotiating for months now on a security agreement to settle the status of US Forces with the end of UN mandate, the British Government is working on a similar agreement with Iraq. The British State Minister for foreign affairs Bill Rimmel announced on Tuesday that reaching an agreement within the coming weeks allowing British troops to remain in Iraq after the end of UN mandate at the end of this year is decisive for Baghdad. Rimmel in Baghdad to discuss US Status Forces agreement stressed the importance of reaching an agreement showing that the presence of British troops in Iraq is not under UN power but in virtue of an honest agreement with the Iraqi Government. He told the BBC that it’s very important to solve this issue in the coming days and weeks while if the UN mandate is not extended by the end of the year, it might damage the progress reached so far.
As for British troops drawdown in Iraq, Rimmel said we are ready to cut down troops once Iraqis are capable of taking control hinting that further draw downs will be carried out in the future.
It is to be noted that the British Times Newspaper has quoted Al Maliki as saying that there is no more need for British combat forces to ascertain security in southern Iraq.

Source: www.alsumaria.tv