Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

5 February 2003

NATO

• A NATO official said Wednesday that the NAC will meet Thursday to discuss the possibility of supporting US.-led military action against Iraq, reports AFP. According to the dispatch, the official said the NAC, which met earlier Wednesday, had decided to delay discussions of Iraq until after a presentation by Secretary of State Powell at the UN. “Member states will want to integrate that into their reflection process,” the official reportedly said, adding that he could not predict whether the meeting on Thursday would take a decision.
  
• AFP quotes diplomatic sources saying Wednesday that Ankara has called on three of its European allies in NATO to end their opposition to the supply of military aid to Turkey by the Alliance in case of war with Iraq. Ambassadors from France, Germany and Belgium were reportedly summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara Tuesday to try to persuade them to examine Turkey’s requests for aid, including Patriot anti-missile batteries and AWACS aircraft.

NATO’s response to a U.S. request to advance military planning for a possible Alliance role in a war against Iraq remains a central theme.
Under the title, “NATO wants to force Berlin back in line,” Financial Times Deutschland claims that ahead of Secretary of State Powell’s address to the UN Security Council, “Germany and France are under pressure to take action.” Diplomats say several NATO members are considering convening a special NAC meeting, the objective of which would be “to get both partners back in rank and file,” the newspaper claims. The newspaper notes, however, that Berlin government circles say a discussion in the NAC prior to the decisions in the UN Security Council is not necessary. Coalition politicians are reportedly concerned that if the UN Security Council rejects war, a vote to provide NATO support would destroy the government’s credibility in the eyes of the German public. Berlin government circles also say Germany would not have to take a stand at a special meeting of the NAC. Berlin could, however, approve the request if NATO was to limit the operations to NATO territory since such operations do not require approval by the Bundestag.
The Washington Times writes meanwhile that referring to France’s stance on Iraq, Richard Perle, the head of the Pentagon’s top advisory board, argued in Washington Tuesday that NATO “must develop a strategy to contain our … ally or we will not be talking about a NATO alliance.” The newspaper adds that Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense and now chairman of the Pentagon’s Policy Advisory Board, condemned French and German policy on Iraq in the strongest terms at a public seminar organized by Iraqi exiles and American Middle East and security officials. Perle is not an official of the Bush administration. But his position as the Pentagon’s senior civil adviser gives his harsh remarks a quasi-official character, the newspaper observes.
Reporting on Tuesday’s Franco-British summit, the Wall Street Journal remarks that Prime Minister Blair failed to persuade President Chirac Tuesday to commit himself to a timetable for deciding whether to back military force against Iraq. The summit’s outcome, while expected, is still a setback to the Bush administration’ strenuous campaign to enlist support for a possible military campaign against Iraq, the newspaper notes. Stressing, however, that France is “quietly polishing its arms in case it joins the U.S. in war,” the International Herald Tribune writes: Paris, officially still non-committal about supporting a U.S.-led war on Iraq, has quietly started readying forces that could fight alongside Americans if there is a war in the Gulf, according to a normally well-informed Paris-based newsletter. French officials declined to comment but several French sources said the substance of the report was correct. According to the newsletter, the sources confirmed that the preparations have been under way since last month and include a crash program to fit some warplanes with advanced electronics and new satellite-linked bomb guidance equipment. The sources also confirmed disclosures from Bush administration officials that French military officers had been sent to Tampa, Florida, for consultations at the U.S. Central Command, the headquarters for military operations in the Gulf.

• According to Reuters, Turkish Prime Minister Gul told reporters Wednesday his government would seek parliamentary authority Thursday for U.S. forces to modernize bases in Turkey for use in a possible Iraq war. “Tomorrow we will go to Parliament and win authority from Parliament,” he reportedly said ahead of a Cabinet meeting. The dispatch also quotes an official from Gul’s Justice and Development Party saying the government would only seek the power to allow U.S. military engineers to upgrade Turkish facilities. A decision to allow larger numbers of U.S. troops to use Turkey as a base for an attack on Iraq would require another parliamentary session, the official reportedly said. The dispatch adds that, according to reports in Turkish newspapers, Vice President Cheney telephoned Gul Tuesday to urge him to push Parliament to approve the stationing of U.S. troops, as well as allowing their transit through Turkey to Iraq, when lawmakers give the go-ahead on the base upgrades this week. It suggests that the government’s delay may in part be aimed at appeasing public opinion.
  
• AFP quotes a Defense Ministry spokesman saying the Latvian government Tuesday approved the site of a NATO-compatible radar close to its border with Russia. The dispatch recalls that citing safety fears, some 20,000 people last year signed a petition against plans to site the TPS-117 three-dimensional radar near the village of Audrini, 40 kilometers from Latvia’s border with Russia. It adds, however, that the spokesman defended the decision, stressing: “Our confidence (in the radar’s safety) is based on experience in other countries, such as Germany, where there are homes right next to such radars—in Audrini, the houses are further anyway.” Discussions were underway over the possibility of monitoring the health of local residents—a group of whom were recently flown to Germany to see similar radars at work, the spokesman reportedly noted. The dispatch remarks that Latvia considers the radar, which will be able to peer some 400 kilometers into Russian air space, an essential part of its preparations to join NATO.
  

ISAF

• In an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung, German Defense Minister Struck says that on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich Feb. 7-9, he will ask his U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld for his support for NATO to assume greater responsibility for ISAF in the summer. Asked if he means that NATO should take over the lead function after the joint mandate of Germany and The Netherlands expires, he said, “yes” and stressed he also wanted to tell his European colleagues that Germany will under any circumstances hand over the leadership in Kabul in September. Echoing the Sueddeutsche Zeitung report, AFP writes: Germany wants the United States to back its recommendation that NATO resume control of the security force in Afghanistan next summer. “I would like Rumsfeld’s support so that NATO takes on a greater role within ISAF from the summer,” the dispatch quotes Struck saying.

OTHER NEWS

• Reuters reports the French Defense Ministry announced Wednesday that Paris will send 450 more troops to the Ivory Coast to boost its force there trying to protect French citizens and enforce a truce between rebel groups and the government. The reinforcement will bring French troops strength in Ivory Coast to over 3,000 soldiers and police, the Ministry reportedly said.