Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki did not call for a timetable for withdrawal as had been reported, BBC News now reports. It would seem that Maliki’s own office incorrectly transcribed the prime minister’s statement, replacing the word “presence” with “withdrawal”.

BBC News has heard the original audio and writes:

The key statement cited by Mr Obama and others was made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki last Monday in his address to Arab ambassadors in the United Arab Emirates.

The prime minister was widely quoted as saying that in the negotiations with the Americans on a Status of Forces Agreement to regulate the US troop presence from next year, “the direction is towards either a memorandum of understanding on their evacuation, or a memorandum of understanding on a timetable for their withdrawal”…

There is only one problem. It is not what Mr Maliki actually said.

In an audio recording of his remarks, heard by the BBC, the prime minister did not use the word “withdrawal”.

What he actually said was: “The direction is towards either a memorandum of understanding on their evacuation, or a memorandum of understanding on programming their presence.”

Via Hot Air.