OREANDA-NEWS. September 2, 2010. The United States has officially announced the completion of the military phase of the operation in Iraq begun, as is known, in March 2003. In accordance with the earlier US-Iraqi agreements, combat units of US forces were withdrawn from Iraq by September 1. At the same time there remains a 50000-strong American contingent, tasked with training Iraqi security forces and supporting them where necessary in the conduct of combat operations. These units must leave Iraqi territory by the end of 2011.

We consider the withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq as an important event in terms of the country gaining full sovereignty and the Iraqi people receiving the possibility to independently dispose, without external interference, of their own destiny.

The most urgent task in this context is an early agreement between the political associations that received the most votes in the March parliamentary elections to form a government and other governing bodies. This will not only help to establish the necessary atmosphere for national reconciliation based on an all-embracing dialogue on critical issues of the internal agenda, but also to move to solve the pressing tasks in ensuring the country’s security by the Iraqi security forces themselves, in rehabilitating the economy and addressing acute social problems.

For our part, we reaffirm our willingness to provide necessary assistance to this.