Military

IRAQ

¨         According to The Times, Iran told Washington Thursday it would never accept an American attempt to impose military rule on Iraq if Saddam Hussein were toppled from power.  Iranian Foreign Minister Kharrazi reportedly condemned leaked proposals to install a U.S. general at the head of an interim post-Saddam administration as "unwarranted neocolonialism."  A related article in The Independent quotes Kharrazi saying, however, that Iran would not stand in the way of a UN-backed war on Iraq.  "We do not support military action, but if the UN Security Council decides to use force against Iraq, that is something else.   In that case, the UN and member states have to comply, that will be a fact," he reportedly said.  Calling Iran "the wild card in Washington's Middle East calculations," The Guardian notes that Iran does not have diplomatic relations with Washington, although the U.S. is represented in Tehran through the Swiss Embassy, but there have also been rumors of "secret contacts" with America.  The newspaper also stresses that a recent opinion poll suggested that most Iranians want to normalize their relations with the United States, though they remain highly critical of American policies.

TURKEY-EU

¨         AP reports EU leaders wrapping up a two-day summit in Brussels said Friday Turkey was making good progress in meeting EU membership conditions yet declined to give Ankara a date to begin entry negotiations.  In a draft summit conclusion, EU leaders reportedly said Turkey had taken "important steps" to meet political and economic membership criteria.  They said that process "has brought forward the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey."  However, they set no date for negotiations to begin in line with a recent report by the European Commission that said Turkey lacked the necessary freedoms of expression, religion and association.  The dispatch adds that in Ankara, Foreign Minister Gurel said his country would "review" relations with the EU if no such date was set within the year.  It recalls that the United States has urged the EU to open up to the Turks at a time when Washington needs Turkey as a key NATO-ally and Moslem nation in the war on terrorism.

German media increasingly view reports that Germany is under  pressure to transform its foreign policy as the price it must pay to repair relations with America against the background of the buildup to the NATO summit.   They also see Germany's attempt to pave the way for Turkey to negotiate with the EU on membership in the same light.

Die Welt recalls that on Wednesday, the Foreign Ministry and the Chancellery denied the existence of a "list" of political demands which the Americans place on the Germans.  Noting, however, that at the Prague summit, Chancellor Schroeder will meet President Bush for the first time after his reelection, the newspaper quotes unidentified NATO sources in Brussels saying Iraq and a proposal for a NATO rapid response force will be on the NATO summit's agenda with the intention, among other things, "to test the solidarities of European NATO members and to put the screws on them." 

Hamburg's Financial Times Deutschland, Oct. 24, claimed it had gained access to information showing that the U.S. administration is planning the security policy strategy for Europe after the NATO summit.  According to political observers privy to the discussions, said the daily, Washington wants to push NATO membership for Serbia and Ukraine and Turkey's accession to the EU.   The daily claimed that an influential Republican politician with close connections to the White House briefed the German government Tuesday on the outline of the "post-Prague agenda."  The official reportedly said the plans will dispel the apprehensions of many security officials in Europe that the United States will turn its back on Europe after the second round of NATO enlargement.  From the U.S. point of view, the official stressed,  the project of creating a "united and free Europe" will not end with the Prague summit.  President Bush will make this clear in his speech there.  The newspaper asserted that  Washington wants Kiev's preparation for NATO membership to begin as early as 2004.  Belgrade's preparation would follow a year later. Parallel to that, NATO membership for Albania and Croatia is to be pushed forward:  an invitation is planned for 2007. Washington also wants Turkey to become an EU member in the same year.  The complete integration of the Balkans and Ukraine into Euro-Atlantic institutions should be concluded by 2010.   The newspaper added that after the Prague summit, the United States expects a much stronger commitment from Berlin than it showed in the second round of NATO's enlargement to the east.  "Out of consideration for Russia, Germany long rejected the membership of the Baltic countries.  Now it is difficult for Germany to lose this image of being a hindrance," the newspaper observed. 

EU-KALININGRAD

¨         AP writes EU leaders defended their right Friday to force Russians to get visas for travel to and from Kaliningrad after Poland and Lithuania join in 2004. In a statement, the leaders reportedly said that while they wanted to accommodate Russian concerns of transit problems for its citizens once Kaliningrad becomes a Russian enclave in the EU, they continued to insist on a visa regime.