Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

16 January 2003

IRAQ

• The United States formally asked its NATO allies on Wednesday for indirect military assistance in case of a war with Iraq, including the deployment of missiles to protect Turkey, NATO officials said. Officials said Washington had tabled a proposal for six forms of support, including access to airspace, bases, ports and refuelling facilities, but none of them would entail direct involvement by the 19-nation alliance in an attack on Iraq. In Washington, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed the request, saying the U.S. envoy to NATO had recently gone to the North Atlantic Council with a list of ways in which NATO allies could help the United States in the event of war. NATO sources said the allies were asked to deploy AWACS aircraft and Patriot air defence missiles to protect NATO member Turkey. The request also included using standing naval forces and minesweepers. NATO officials said consultations were at an early stage and no decision had been taken on the U.S. request. Ambassadors were expected to seek instructions from their governments and discuss the issue again next week. (Reuters 152128 GMT Jan 03)
  
  
• Russia flexed its diplomatic muscle on Thursday, starting a peace mission in Baghdad to avert a U.S.-led war against Iraq after UN experts hunted for banned weapons deep inside President Saddam Hussein's main palace. The peace initiative begins as chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix made clear he would tell Iraqi officials they needed to submit new evidence on any weapons of mass destruction or face possible war. (Reuters 160329 GMT Jan 03)
  

BALKANS

• The United States expressed confidence on Wednesday that the European Union's fledgling rapid reaction force would be ready to take over NATO's peacekeeping mission in Macedonia (sic) by March, denying a report that it was seeking to stall the plan. "There is no position on the table anywhere in Washington that the EU should not do this," said a U.S. official, who asked not to be named. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States thought that the EU and NATO could work out detailed cooperation arrangements in time. (Reuters 152223 GMT Jan 03)
  
  
• NATO discussed on Wednesday possible further cuts in its military presence in the Balkans as stability grows in Bosnia and Kosovo, officials said in Brussels. Ambassadors of the 19-nation alliance agreed the situation was not yet ripe for an international military disengagement, but there was scope to run down troop levels further. One source said the envoys discussed possibly cutting the Bosnia force to 7,000 and almost halving the Kosovo mission to 15,000 later this year. No decision was taken but the allies agreed in principle on their willingness to see the European Union take over the Macedonia (sic) mission and possibly at a later stage the Bosnia role. He said NATO would take decisions in the spring but gave no date. (Reuters 151813 GMT Jan 03)
  
  
• NATO-led peacekeepers parachuted from planes and fanned out in southwestern Kosovo on Wednesday to start an exercise, "Rapid Guardian 2003", aimed at training reserve forces to conduct peacekeeping operations in the Balkans. Though NATO declined to reveal precisely how many soldiers were taking part, a KFOR spokesman said that most of those participating were American troops based in Italy and Germany. (AP 151406 Jan 03)
  

OTHER NEWS

• The Bush administration is clearing the way for the sale of military helicopters to Turkey, in what could be the first piece of a multibillion-dollar aid package aimed at shoring up support for a possible war in Iraq, congressional sources said on Wednesday in Washington. The U.S. Export-Import Bank is expected on Thursday to back a loan facility giving Turkey access to about US $324 million in loan guarantees to purchase eight S-70B Seahawks and six UH-60 Black Hawks. The military sale is expected to be part of a broader aid package for Turkey that could total as much as US $14 billion, including loan guarantees and other benefits, to help mitigate the economic shock of a war with Iraq. (Reuters 160015 GMT Jan 03)