Iraqi Vice President Barham Salih has said that the Iraqi trend in the negotiations over the U.S.-Iraq long-term security agreement is to draw up an understanding regarding the "interim horizon" of the U.S. presence and not necessarily to set a detailed timetable.
In response to a question about whether the agreement would be declared in late July, as the Americans were demanding, he said, "We hope that we will arrive at understandings before this date... but if this cannot be done by the two parties it won't be the end of the world."
Source: Al-Hayat, London, June 29, 2008
