Washington, Oct 16 (ANI): Obama administration officials have denied speculations that the U.S. would be abandoning plans to keep troops in Iraq after a year-end withdrawal deadline, insisting that discussions with Iraqi leaders are "ongoing."
For months, U.S. officials have been debating whether to stick to a December 31 withdrawal deadline that was set in 2008 or negotiate a new security agreement to ensure that gains made and more than 4,400 American military lives lost since March 2003 do not go to waste.
However, reports suggest that in recent weeks, Washington has been discussing with Iraqi leaders the possibility of keeping several thousand American troops in that country to train Iraqi security forces.
But a senior Obama administration official in Washington denied such speculations, saying that all American troops will leave Iraq except for about 160 active-duty soldiers attached to the U.S. Embassy.
"Suggestions that a final decision has been reached about our training relationship with the Iraqi government are wrong. Those discussions are ongoing," Fox News quoted George Little, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said, "President Obama has repeatedly made it clear that we are committed to keeping our agreement with the Iraqi government to remove all of our troops by the end of this year. At the same time we're building a comprehensive partnership with Iraq under the Strategic Framework Agreement including a robust security relationship, and discussion with the Iraqis about the nature of that relationship are ongoing." (ANI)
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