The United States will stick to its timetable for pulling troops out of Iraq despite recent violence, Vice President Joe Biden has said as President Barack Obama visited Baghdad.
"I'm not worried about that at all. We will draw down along the timeline we suggested," Biden yesterday said in an interview, asked if an upsurge in attacks blamed on Al-Qaida might derail the US timetable.
Obama, who was on a surprise trip to Iraq yesterday after a tour of Europe and Turkey, plans to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq by August 2010, although a force of up to 50,000 will remain through 2011.
Biden said the president went to Baghdad to pay tribute to US troops and to urge political reconciliation in talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"And one of the things the president has said from the beginning is in addition to us drawing down troops, it was necessary for there to be further political accommodation between the Sunnis, Shia, and the Kurds," he said.
In Baghdad, Obama said that the next 18 months would be "critical" for Iraq, and told the war-torn country that it would soon have to look after itself.
