Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

28 January 2003

ESDP-DSACEUR

• Media focus on reports that EU foreign ministers Monday formally agreed to take over the peacekeeping operation in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. AFP stresses that EU foreign ministers will now propose to NATO that DSACEUR, Adm. Feist, command the force from SHAPE headquarters. The dispatch adds that though Adm. Feist will be overall head, the EU is still expected to name a commander to oversee forces on site in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, coming from one of the countries that will contribute troops. “No agreement has yet been reached as to how exactly the command structure should be organized,” says a related Sueddeutsche Zeitung article, adding: The designated commander of the force, DSACEUR, Adm. Feist, is to prepare recommendations for such a structure. An EU operations center is to be set up at SHAPE headquarters. NATO and the EU will have to agree on a number of details with regard to their future cooperation before the start of the operation, which is planned for March. Even within the EU, it remains disputed whether the Naples-based NATO Regional Command for Southern Europe should be included in the command structure for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia mission. This is what the EU military calls for as other NATO missions in the Balkans—KFOR and SFOR—are also directed via the Naples headquarters. France and Greece want to avoid such a close linkage with the Alliance in order to demonstrate the EU’s independence. On the other hand, London, The Hague, and Berlin support a command chain via Naples, which would also serve as a “political signal” to the United States. While Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports factually that Adm. Feist will be appointed commander of the EU operation and that a military headquarters for the operation will be established at SHAPE, Reuters writes: “The operation—which will be open to non-EU forces—will be led by DSACEUR, Adm. Feist—from SHAPE headquarters. However, there are still some loose ends to tie up between the EU and NATO, including a security agreement under which exchanges of classified information between the two institutions would become automatic.”

IRAQ

• The Washington Post quotes “informed sources” saying the Bush administration has assembled what it believes to be significant intelligence showing that Iraq has been actively moving and concealing banned weapons systems and related equipment from UN inspectors. The sources reportedly indicated that President Bush and his national security advisers have decided to declassify some of the information and make it public, perhaps as early as next week, in an effort to garner more domestic and international support for confronting Saddam Hussein.
  
• Reuters reports that within hours of the EU papering over its cracks by reaching a minimal consensus to back the inspection process and urge Iraq to cooperate more fully, rifts opened anew Tuesday over reports by chief UN weapons inspectors. The dispatch remarks that while Britain said the report showed Baghdad was in “material breach” of UN resolutions, France and Germany said it showed more time was needed for inspections. It adds that Belgium, which has hitherto stood close to France and Germany in rejecting any rush to war, made clear Tuesday it might be coming around to the need of force. “If they don’t respond favorably to the demands of the EU, I think it means the Iraqis don’t want to reintegrate into the international community, that they manifestly have something to hide, that they have a dangerous agenda, and that they constitute a danger to international security,” the dispatch quotes Foreign Minister Michel saying at a seminar in Brussels. The Daily Telegraph stresses meanwhile that initial reactions to the inspector’s reports suggest that permanent members of the Security Council have not changed their minds. The daily expects that the inspections will continue as President Bush and Prime Minister Blair build up their forces in the Gulf. “Their assessment of Saddam’s duplicity, amply demonstrated in the 1990s, is more realistic than their opponents’. The findings of the inspectors lend support to their preparations for war,” the daily argues. The Financial Times stresses that the evaluations of the reports will test the unity of the Security Council, where deliberations on the report are continuing.