US President Barack Obama has announced that the remaining 39.000 US troops stationed in Iraq will withdraw from the country by the end of the year, ending nine years of conflict.
"Today I can announce, as I promised, that our remaining troops will return from Iraq by the end of the year. After nine years, the US-led war in Iraq will end," Obama said in a statement from the White House.
He announced this after a video link conversation with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the collapse of negotiations aimed at keeping American soldiers in Iraq.
The withdrawal date by the end of the year is part of the 2008 agreement between the US and Iraq.
Obama also announced that the Iraqi Prime Minister will pay an official visit to the White House in December, when normal relations between the two sovereign countries will be re-established.
The negotiations, however, reached an impasse due to the legal status of American soldiers after 2011. Namely, Washington demanded full immunity for its soldiers, which would spare them from trial in Iraq, which Baghdad refused.
That point was a "key stumbling block" in negotiations with Baghdad, a senior US official said on Monday.
Obama's announcement about the withdrawal of troops by the end of the year came a day after the disbandment of the northern division in Iraq, at the center of the conflict between the central authorities of Iraq and the authorities of the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Americans often present that conflict as one of the biggest threats to long-term stability in Iraq.
Obama also announced that the Iraqi Prime Minister will pay an official visit to the White House in December, when normal relations between the two sovereign countries will be re-established.
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