Newly re-elected Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ended any talk of an extension of the status of forces agreement in Iraq in an interview, saying that US forces will leave the country entirely at the end of 2011, just 12 months from now. Currently there are a little less than 50,000 “non-combat” troops in Iraq.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ruled out the presence of any U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of 2011, saying his new government and the country’s security forces were capable of confronting any remaining threats to Iraq’s security, sovereignty and unity.

Mr. Maliki spoke with The Wall Street Journal in a two-hour interview, his first since Iraq ended nine months of stalemate and seated a new government after an inconclusive election, allowing Mr. Maliki to begin a second term as premier.

A majority of Iraqis—and some Iraqi and U.S. officials—have assumed the U.S. troop presence would eventually be extended, especially after the long government limbo. But Mr. Maliki was eager to draw a line in his most definitive remarks on the subject. “The last American soldier will leave Iraq” as agreed, he said, speaking at his office in a leafy section of Baghdad’s protected Green Zone. “This agreement is not subject to extension, not subject to alteration. It is sealed.”

Maliki may be a new Prime Minister, but he’s not exactly a secure one. And while the public is skeptical about the withdrawal of US troops, they are certainly in favor of it. Nationalist, anti-occupation sentiment is such that it’s been political poison for years to suggest any extension of the status of forces agreement, practically since the moment it was signed in 2008. So Maliki has plenty of incentive to keep the withdrawal on schedule.

Maliki also says in this interview that he will not be drawn into an alliance with Iran. On this I’m a bit more skeptical, as Iranian influence certainly exists in Iraq, and a key part of Maliki’s alliance includes the Sadrists, who are closely affiliated with Tehran.

While US officials hadn’t previously closed the door on a renegotiation of the SOFA, Maliki’s public comments effectively end any chance of that, and Obama Administration officials backed him up on them. The US is really leaving Iraq at the end of next year, as well they should. And this quote from Maliki should resonate for current and future wars:

He said full withdrawal of U.S. troops also will remove a prime motivator of insurgents—both the Shiite fighters tied to militia groups and Iran, and Sunnis linked to Mr. Hussein’s ousted Baath party.

Withdrawal to remove motivations of the insurgency? The devil you say!

…incidentally, I just counted this up, and the two-hour interview with Maliki netted only 153 of his own words in the actual article. The print paper may be constrained by space, but the Web isn’t. Why not release the transcript? This is an exclusive two-hour interview with an important global figure. Why needlessly reduce it to a few soundbites? There is a transcript available here.