Military

NATO

¨         According to AFP, German Defense Minister Struck said Wednesday NATO defense ministers had decided to meet one more time before the Prague summit, which is expected to agree on how to transform and enlarge the Alliance.  Speaking at the end of a two-day informal ministerial meeting in Prague, Struck reportedly said the session could be on Oct. 31 in Brussels.  The dispatch adds that NATO officials would neither confirm nor deny plans for the new meeting.

¨         The Washington Post writes that after months of intense but virtually unnoticed diplomacy, the Alliance is set to invite seven Eastern European countries to be new members.  The article observes that the admission of the seven nations will bring more than 40 million additional people under NATO's security umbrella and stretch the Alliance's territory from the Baltic coast just west of Russia to the Black Sea on Europe's southern flank.  Noting that NATO officials have decided not to announce the enlargement until the Prague summit, the dispatch adds, however, that several ministers attending an informal meeting of NATO defense ministers in Warsaw Tuesday and Wednesday said enlargement was not debated because the decision to take the seven had already been made.  According to the newspaper, the last of the seven to be included in the consensus was Slovakia, following parliamentary elections last week.  Voters there did not return to office former Prime Minister Meciar, whom U.S. officials viewed as unsuitable to head a NATO country, stresses the article.  It quotes NATO officials saying it would take at least two years for the parliaments of all 19 member nations to ratify amendments to the North Atlantic Treaty that would allow full membership for the seven countries.  During that time, the officials reportedly said, the Membership Action Plans would continue in force and new requirements could still be added to keep the aspirants on their toes. 

¨         According to NATO Secretary General Robertson, the differences in German-U.S. relations are not burdening the Alliance, reports Berlin's DDP news agency.  The dispatch quotes Lord Robertson saying in Berlin Thursday the Alliance had withstood completely different tensions and differences of opinion between Berlin and Washington were a "bilateral question."  For NATO, Lord Robertson reportedly stressed, Germany, with the large number of troops provided for missions abroad, is a reliable ally.  The purported rift between Washington and Berlin continues to generate high interest in German media.  Claiming that the Warsaw meeting confirmed those rifts, Die Welt comments:  "Obstruction, stubbornness, or incapability to communicate:  the Warsaw NATO meeting was unable to mend the rifts in U.S.-German relations.  It robbed Germany of the illusion that the road to normalcy will be short and without strain-and above all, that it can be had without paying a price."

IRAQ

¨         The Daily Telegraph writes that American efforts to stream-roller a robust, "last chance" warning to Saddam Hussein through the UN were in disarray Wednesday, exposing deep divisions in Washington and the West. According to the article, tension between U.S. departments, British unease, and outright opposition from France and Russia were delaying the drafting of a UN resolution compelling Iraq to allow proper inspection of its weapons sites or suffer the consequences.  To satisfy America, the resolution must destroy the loopholes exploited by Baghdad to evade monitoring and, ideally, justify to the rest of the world a declaration of war if defiance continues. But hopes that a document jointly sponsored by Washington and London would be in force by the weekend are slipping as U.S. officials argued among themselves and with foreign counterparts over the wording, stresses the newspaper.

¨         According to The Daily Telegraph, the British Defense Ministry has taken its rapid reaction unit off training for the firemen's strike in readiness for a war against Iraq. The newspaper recalls that the Ministry had already decided to pull 1,000 troops out of Kosovo at the end of next month, also a move which was seen as part of preparations for war. 

¨         The Bush administration is preparing to train an army of up to 10,000 Iraqi opposition fighters for a conflict with Saddam Hussein in a reversal of previous American policy, reports The Daily Telegraph.  According to the article, the Washington director of the Iraqi National Congress, the largest opposition group, confirmed that rebel groups were now in discussions with the Pentagon about military training.  The rebels would not be expected to lead assaults or trigger an internal insurrection, but would concentrate on supporting U.S. and allied ground forces, the dispatch quotes an unnamed administration source saying.  Training would concentrate on making sure rebels were familiar with U.S. equipment and capabilities, the official reportedly stressed.

SLOVAKIA

¨         Reuters quotes a spokesman for the Slovak presidency saying in Bratislava Thursday that President Schuster will name Prime Minister Dzurinda to lead talks to form a new cabinet after rightist parties scored a surprise victory in a weekend vote.  The dispatch remarks that the right's win shut out autocratic ex-Prime Minister Meciar and looks to have locked in EU and NATO entry for Slovakia when the groups pick new members later this year.