Leading article: A clean withdrawal from Iraq

An agreement of a historic nature was struck in Baghdad yesterday. The Iraqi cabinet has approved a deal with Washington which stipulates that US troops will withdraw from the streets of Iraqi towns by the middle of next year and that American troops will leave the country entirely by the end of 2011.

The US had originally wanted some of its troops to stay beyond 2011 for training purposes and for withdrawal to be conditional on the security situation. The Iraqi government resisted and has prevailed. The deal still needs the approval of Iraq's parliament, but if granted, it will spell the beginning of the end of the US occupation of Iraq.

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On the surface, this looks to be good news for US President-elect Barack Obama, who campaigned in the recent US election on a ticket of withdrawing America's 150,000 troops from Iraq within 16 months. His policy appears to be being enacted, even before he takes office.

But Mr Obama needs to be wary. The situation over the next three years in Iraq is potentially deeply unstable. The decision of Sunni tribes to rise up against al-Qa'ida in Iraq was crucial in delivering the security gains of the past year. But there has been little progress in integrating these Sunni militias into the regular Iraqi army because of opposition from the Shia-led government. The potential for a return to hostilities between the Shia and the Sunni communities of Iraq still exists.

The great misconception about the "surge" of an extra 30,000 US troops into Iraq last year was that it "solved" the violence. It did not; it merely helped to freeze it. And the conflict could easily thaw under the heat of an American withdrawal.

On the whole, the agreement approved yesterday is positive for Iraq. The fact that the US has committed to pulling out with no strings attached should ease political and sectarian tensions in the country. After all, the vast majority of Iraqis want the American military out. But President Obama will still need to play a very smart and delicate game to ensure that his country's departure from Iraq is as clean as he – and the world – wants it to be.