Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere; I scanned the recent diary list and the front page but didn't see anything about it. According to Le Monde (linked article is in French; I haven't yet seen it on an English-language site), the secretary of state, on a surprise visit to Iraq, announced that negotiators were "very close" to a SOFA deal that, according to an anonymous military source, might be announced tomorrow. According to the same anonymous source, the agreement calls for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq beginning in June 2009.
Of course, the weasel clause "if conditions permit" is attached to that withdrawal deadline. But I can't help wondering if the announcement of this agreement (or rather its leak) wasn't timed to take a little wind out of Obama's sails as he ramps up for the convention next week. I have no proof of that, of course, but it's certainly not an implausible conclusion given the Hedgemony's past behavior.
I'll update with an English-language source if I find one.
Update [2008-8-21 16:30:58 by musing85]: The New York Times is reporting that Rice met with Iraqi government officials and confirmed that they were close to an agreement, but provided no details of what it might contain.
The Beeb also had the story, but didn't provide any details about the agreement, either.
Update [2008-8-21 16:36:12 by musing85]:Didn't catch this on the first read-through of the article in Le Monde, but the anonymous military source said that there was no firm deadline for the total withdrawal of American forces, only "temporal horizons" and "general hopes." He had no comment on press reports suggesting an end date in 2011.