The administration of President George W. Bush was preparing a set of concrete benchmarks that the Iraqi government would be required to meet as part of a revamped strategy for stabilizing the country politically and economically, the New York Times reported Sunday, citing senior administration officials.
The targets included bringing more Sunni Arabs into Iraq's political process, resolving a long-stalled agreement on oil revenue distribution, and revising policy toward former members of the Baath Party. Some benchmarks carried over from an earlier list agreed upon with Iraqi officials in October that had not been fulfilled.
Bush was expected to outline the new strategy in a major speech that week, which would also address plans to deploy up to 20,000 additional troops. Administration officials said the benchmarks would be released publicly after that address.
One senior official was quoted as saying: "This is not an open-ended commitment." Officials stressed that the Iraqi government would be held to a realistic timeline, though no specific penalties for failing to meet the goals were disclosed.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in January 2007, in its own words.