Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

21 February 2003

NATO

• Fresh from NATO’s biggest rift since the Cold War, the alliance Secretary-General Robertson appealed on Thursday for people of both sides of the Atlantic to calm down. He also said that he did not detect any sense that President Bush and other U.S. officials wanted to retaliate against European nations after two days of talks. Rather, he said, they expressed relief that agreement had been reached on some points on planning in case of war with Iraq. “On both sides of the Atlantic people need to cool down, get things into perspective,” Robertson said, “and recognize that the values that unite this alliance in a volatile world are worth protecting.” He said this meant that temper and emotions needed to be keep under control. “Anti-Americanism is profoundly damaging and corrosive and needs to be condemned by all decent people,” Robertson said. “I similarly condemn some of the approaches that have been taken (in the United States) toward some European countries ... a sense of discrimination, sometimes racialism that is deeply unfair and corrosive.”(AP 202202 Feb 03 GMT)
  
  
• The United States signaled a willingness on Thursday to make last-minute revisions to an economic aid package for Turkey, hoping to end an impasse with its NATO ally over the use of Turkish bases by American forces for a possible war with Iraq. The overture, which may involve restructuring portions of the $26 billion package to provide more assistance to Turkey at the same cost to the United States, could help salvage U.S. plans to send up to 40,000 troops to Turkey for use in a possible invasion of Iraq from the north. An announcement could come as soon as Friday. Secretary of State Powell told reporters the U.S. aid offer -- which amounts to $6 billion in grants and up to $20 billion in loan guarantees -- was as high as the United States could go. “Our position was firm with respect to the kind of assistance we could provide with respect to the level,” Powell said. But he added: “There may be some other creative things we can do.”(Reuters 2329 200203 GMT)

IRAQ

• The United States declared on Thursday it had massed a big enough force in the Gulf to attack Iraq at any time and senior U.S. officials said Washington would seek UN approval next week for a possible war. Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov said UN arms inspectors in Iraq were coming under pressure to produce reports which would back the case for war and urged them to remain objective in carrying out their task. Turkish Prime Minister Gul said he would make a statement on Friday about the issue. An administration official traveling with President Bush on a visit to Georgia said Washington would present a new resolution on Iraq -- which the UN has ordered to scrap any weapons of mass destruction in its arsenal -- to the Security Council next week. Secretary of State Powell said the wording of the resolution was still under review but it would make clear Iraq had not fulfilled Resolution 1441 passed in November. The draft resolution is expected to be simple and say Iraq is in “further material breach” of the Nov. 8 resolution.(Reuters 0241 210203 GMT)

OTHER NEWS

• Four U.S. military transport planes carrying troops and equipment landed near Romania’s Black Sea coast Thursday night, airport officials said, in what appeared to be the start of a new stage of the buildup of forces against Iraq. The planes, which landed at the international airport in Constanta, carried some 250 troops as well as equipment and food. They were to remain in Romania until Monday, said Alexandru Bazdac, an airport official in Constanta. Seven more planes were expected during the night in this Black Sea city, located some 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Bucharest, with some making a stopover along the way in the capital’s international airport to refuel. The U.S. troops were accommodated in a hotel near the Constanta airport and in two Romanian military bases near the airport, Bazdac said.(202302 Feb 03 GMT)