Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

18 March 2003

IRAQ

• The UN “Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities so we will rise to ours,” President Bush said Monday night in a nationwide television address, hours after a decision to withdraw a United Nations resolution that appeared headed for rejection. “All the decades of deceit and cruelty have now reached an end,” the president said. “Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing.” (AP 180502 Mar 03)
  
  
• Turkey’s top political and military leaders have agreed to urgently take steps that could allow in U.S. troops and let U.S. bombers use Turkish air space and the cabinet will meet Tuesday to discuss the measures. The announcement Monday came at the end of a meeting that included the leaders of Turkey’s new government, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and the head of Turkey’s military. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said the Cabinet would discuss an authorization measure during a special meeting Tuesday. But Sener gave no details on whether the resolution would be similar to the earlier resolution, which would have allowed in 62,000 U.S. soldiers or whether it would be more restrictive. (AP 180106 Mar 03)

EU 

• The European Union’s top enlargement official defended candidate countries on Monday from criticism that they had behaved out of line by siding with the United States in the Iraq crisis. “We cannot expect the candidate countries to observe a common EU position that does not exist,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee. “We have to avoid a situation in Europe where future member states are put under pressure to choose between the European Union and the United States,” Verheugen added. He noted that the candidates mostly have very warm relations with the United States, which had helped them break free of “Soviet imperialism.” He said their accession should lead to “a widening and deepening” of transatlantic ties. Despite his defence of the candidate states, Verheugen also urged them in future to liaise more closely with the EU before taking a public position on major international issues. (Reuters 172004 GMT Mar 03)

BALKANS

• NATO formally agreed on Monday to hand over its peacekeeping role in Macedonia (sic) to the European Union, which will make its debut in military operations. The operation will involve 320 personnel in the tiny former Yugoslav republic. “This decision...marks an important milestone in the development of the NATO-EU strategic partnership,” NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said in a statement. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to rubber stamp the transfer of responsibilities. (Reuters 172003 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Deputies of the loose union of Serbia and Montenegro inaugurated its first federal cabinet on Monday, which will have a limited say in the new Balkan state’s foreign affairs, defence, economy and human rights. “Our aims remain the same - integration into Europe, good relations with neighbours, good relations of our two peoples inside the union,” Foreign Minister Goran Svilanovic said after the inauguration. (Reuters 171910 GMT Mar 03)