Middle East News

Leading Iraqi politician welcomes Obama's remarks on Iraq

Jan 28, 2010, 14:50 GMT

Baghdad - US President Barack Obama's remarks on Iraq from his 'state of the union' address were 'positive' and 'welcome,' a leading member of Iraq's parliamentary coalition said Thursday.

'We welcome (Obama's) statements. They were positive and reflected the commitment of the US administration to ... the gradual withdrawal of the US military by the end of 2011,' Abbas al-Bayati, a member of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's ruling coalition, told the German Press Agency dpa.

Al-Bayati, a member of the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defence Committee, said the US withdrawal was proceeding according to the schedule agreed by the United States and Iraq.

'The recent bombings will not impede the withdrawal (of US forces),' al-Bayati said.

'There have been breaches, not a collapse, in security. We can control it,' he said.

'As we take the fight to al-Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people,' Obama said in his first annual 'state of the union' address Wednesday night.

'But make no mistake: this war is ending, and all of our troops are coming home,' he said, to a standing ovation.