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The Washington PostBAGHDAD — Iraq’s political leaders appear set to miss a deadline this weekend for deciding whether to ask U.S. military forces to stay beyond December, according to Iraqi and American officials familiar with negotiations.
President Jalal Talabani has given Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top leaders until Saturday to reach an agreement on what, if any, sustained U.S. military presence Iraq might need. But Maliki and his rivals, beset by other domestic political disputes, remain divided over the matter, including how to formally ask the Obama administration for such an extension, officials said.
With leaders still at an impasse, and despite Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s remark last week that Iraqi leaders should “dammit, make a decision,” most U.S. officials say they do not anticipate receiving a formal request from the Iraqis until September, meaning that the roughly 46,000 U.S. troops in Iraq remain on course to withdraw by Dec. 31. One senior U.S. military official recently suggested a request might not come until March.
“The later they come, the harder it is to respond to that,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Buchanan, the lead U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview late last week. If a request were made in March, he said, the United States “has committed to an enduring partnership with Iraq,” but he added that it would be more feasible for Iraqis to ask for help now, “while we have troops here and infrastructure here.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/iraq-likely-to-miss-deadline-on-us-troop-decision-officials-say/2011/07/20/gIQAPPuvRI_story.html