July 13, 2008 Obama confirms upcoming trip to Iraq Play video

(NECN/ABC) - Barack Obama said he has plans to visit Iraq with two U.S. Senators who are experts on foreign policy.

Obama was sure to express that there is only one president of the United States and he will be making no promises to the Iraqi people, only listening to them

Here is what Obama said:

"Sen. Hagel and Sen. Reed I think may be coming with us...They're both experts on foreign policy. They reflect, I think, a traditional bipartisan wisdom when it comes to foreign policy. Neither of them are ideologues, but try to get the facts right and make a determination about what's best for U. S. interests and they're good guys."

More From Obama:

"We have one president at a time so I'm not going to be traveling to negotiate anything or making promises. I am there to listen but there's no doubt that my core position which is that we need a timetable for withdrawal not only to relieve pressure on our military but also to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and to put more pressure on the Iraqi government is now a position that is also held by the Iraqi government itself." John McCain and George Bush both said that if Iraq is a sovereign government stated that it was time to start withdrawing our troops....then they would respect the wishes of that sovereign government....and given that I think it's in our strategic interest it certaintly strikes me that we shouldn't be writing a status of forces agreement for example that

Obama on a withdrawal effort:

"I don't expect that a withdrawal will be perfectly neat. I think we're gonna have to do a lot leg work and we've got to make sure that we are ramping up both diplomatic efforts and reconstruction efforts and humanitarian efforts in Iraq and that we have to make sure that Sunnis have some assurance that they're gonna be legitimate partners in the government process."