WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 — Iraq has presented the United States with a plan that calls for Iraqi troops to assume primary responsibility for security in Baghdad early next year. American troops would be shifted to the periphery of the capital.
Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s national security adviser, said in an interview that the plan was presented during the meeting in Amman, Jordan, on Nov. 30 between President Bush and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
“I think it is extremely important they reduce their visibility and they reduce their presence,” Mr. Rubaie said of the American troops in Baghdad. “They should be in the suburbs within greater Baghdad.”
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The plan has seriously alarmed Sunni politicians, who said they could not imagine that the Americans would turn security over to a government that they see as deeply sectarian.
“It will be a disaster,” said Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, a Sunni who is speaker of Parliament. “I think the Americans are not so stupid as to do that. The city would be a safe place for the militias.”
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