ARBIL, IRAQ — American negotiators have not yet succeeded in getting Iraqi officials to agree to keep US troops well into the next president’s first term, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, confirmed yesterday. On a surprise visit to Baghdad, Rice denied earlier reports this week that the two sides had ironed out the last disputes in a heavily contested draft agreement that is due to replace the UN mandate covering the US-led occupation. President George Bush wants the pact to authorise a troop presence at least until 2011 so that he can trumpet it as proof of his policy’s success. But the prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has adopted the rise in nationalist feeling in the Iraqi parliament and among the public and is insisting on a clear timetable for withdrawal, the lifting of judicial immunity for US troops who commit abuses, and a veto on US military operations, including the arrest of Iraqis. The pact has been downgraded into a ‘memorandum of understanding’ to avoid the need for the US Senate to approve it. In Iraq, it has to clear several hurdles. ‘Once a breakthrough has really been achieved, the draft will be presented to the […]