Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

17 January 2003

IRAQ

• The top U.S. military officer Gen. Richard Myers, his forces preparing for possible war with Iraq, will hold talks with military and government officials in neighboring Turkey in coming days, the Pentagon said on Thursday. A defense department statement said Gen. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, would go to Turkey - which has yet to grant Washington permission to launch an attack on Iraq from its soil - at the weekend after stops in Belgium and Italy. The statement also said that in Mons, Belgium, Gen. Myers would attend a ceremony marking the change in command at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe on Friday. Gen. James Jones is to succeed Gen. Joseph Ralston as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe and commander, U.S. European Command. (Reuters 170201 GMT Jan 03)
  
  
• An inspection team searching bunkers in southern Iraq found 11 empty chemical warheads that Iraqi officials had not declared to the United Nations, a UN spokesman said. Iraq insisted that it had reported the rockets, which it said were old and never used for chemical weapons. U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the discovery may not amount to a "smoking gun" unless some sort of chemical agent is also detected. (AP 170215 Jan 03)
  
  
• Turkey proposed on Thursday holding a regional peace summit on Iraq in the hopes of avoiding a war. The Turkish Foreign Ministry called in the ambassadors of Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to discuss a proposal to host a regional peace summit that would work toward a peaceful solution to the U.S.-Iraqi standoff, a Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporters in Ankara. (AP 161818 Jan 03)
  ¨ NATO should agree to help with a possible war against Iraq to present a united front against the threat of President Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass terror", the second-in-command at the Pentagon said Thursday. The threat of military action is the only way to convince Iraq to disarm peacefully, and the more countries that back the United States, the more credible that threat is, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said. His comments, made during a trip to install a new head of the U.S. European Command, were aimed at some of America's NATO allies. (AP 161950 Jan 03)
  
  
• Top European Union officials on Thursday welcomed a UN announcement that they discovered warheads in Iraq as evidence that weapons inspectors were doing their job. "This is proof of the work of the inspectors," Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy and security chief, said. "I think we have to wait to see the results of their analysis." Solana, visiting Athens, met chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix in Brussels earlier on Thursday. "He told me that the effort was being increased and the work of the inspectors will intensify," Solana added. NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson is also visiting Athens to discuss the priorities of the Greek presidency. After meeting Premier Simitis, he told reporters there will be "no need for military action" if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein complies "fully and unconditionally" with UN resolutions. (AP 162045 Jan 03)
  
  
• German Defence Minister Peter Struck said on Thursday that he could not imagine Germany voting in favour of a war against Iraq at the United Nations Security Council, where it currently holds a seat. "A final decision can only be taken when it is clear what the vote concerns, but a yes is no longer conceivable," Peter Struck told a German newspaper. His statement, the clearest clue so far by a German cabinet minister to how Germany would act in any new UN vote, was confirmed by a defence ministry spokesman. (Reuters 162058 GMT Jan 03)
  
  
• The German Defense Ministry said Thursday that it plans to deliver at the end of this month an anti-missile defense system to Israel, which requested the weapons to fend off any Iraqi attack if war breaks in the region. Two Patriot anti-missile systems will be delivered by ship under a two-year loan agreement signed by officials from the two countries in Berlin on Thursday, a ministry spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. However, the spokesman said Israel had not repeated a request for armored cars that caused a political row in Berlin. (AP 162036 Jan 03)

BALKANS

• Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic called on Thursday for talks to begin on the final status of Kosovo. Yugoslav and Serbian officials have previously said the situation for the beleaguered Serb minority in the southern province must improve before the emotive issue can be addressed. Djindjic said he did not believe that Serbia should wait for certain standards to be met in Kosovo before talks could get under way. He suggested delaying the issue would only make it harder for Belgrade to prevent Kosovo from becoming independent. He did not make clear who should take part in such talks, but called on the EU to get involved.