Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

19 March 2003

IRAQ

• Thirty governments have agreed to be named in public as supporters of a U.S. invasion of Iraq, and about 15 others are cooperating behind the scenes, the U.S. State Department said on Tuesday in Washington. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the basic criterion for inclusion in the published list was that the countries wanted to be publicly associated with the idea that Iraq has to be disarmed now. They are not necessarily providing any assistance to the U.S. war effort. The only allies known to be contributing offensive military forces are Britain and Australia, but the Danish government offered on Tuesday to send military personnel. Boucher declined to say how many were willing to fight. (Reuters 182313 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Turkey said on Wednesday it had agreed with the United States to present a motion to parliament later in the day allowing only for the overflight of U.S. troops and military aircraft to Iraq via its airspace and bases. The announcement appeared to mark the end of urgent U.S. efforts to deploy its troops in Turkey for a ‘northern front’ against Iraq. Government spokesman Cemil Cicek said the United States had not asked parliament to address such a demand for the time being. “The motion we will present today (Wednesday) will be to allow the transit of U.S. military aircraft and Turkish soldiers to be deployed abroad,” Cicek told an Ankara news conference. “If further requests emerge in the future we will evaluate them but at this moment the request from the United States is for permission for overflights through Turkish airspace.” (Reuters 190132 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Iraqi opposition groups meeting in Turkey have agreed to put their forces under the control of a U.S.-led command in the event of war, a U.S. envoy said on Tuesday. “The Iraqi parties present...have committed themselves to fully cooperate with the coalition and to put whatever forces they have under the command and control of the coalition commanders,” Washington’s envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said. He said the groups were working on a consulting mechanism to avoid clashes local Iraqi Kurdish leaders say could be possible if Turkey enters the region in force. (Reuters 181748 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa decided against a last-minute peacemaking trip to Iraq on Tuesday, leaving Arabs on the sidelines - where their divisions have left them throughout a crisis expected to profoundly affect their neighborhood. “Due to developments we’ve witnessed in the last few hours, it won’t be possible for the secretary-general to visit Baghdad” as he had considered doing Tuesday, Moussa’s spokesman said. Moussa said that he had received a message Tuesday from Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, relayed by Iraq’s envoy to the Arab League Mohsen Khalil. An Arab League official said Khalil urged the Arab League to take unspecified measures to prevent war. (AP 181550 Mar 03)
  
  
• Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar on Tuesday ruled out sending Spanish troops to take part in a U.S.-led attack on Iraq but said he would deploy military personnel and equipment in a support capacity and offer warplanes to defend Turkey. “Spain will not participate in any attack or offensive missions,” Aznar told the Parliament. He said its support to the United States and Britain would include a hospital vessel, a mine-clearing unit, a team of chemical detection experts, a frigate and an oil tanker vessel, with personnel totaling about 900 people. If Iraq attacks Turkey, he said Spain has offered NATO six F-18 warplanes to help defend the neighboring country, plus a Hercules C-130 refueling plane and a search and rescue helicopter. (AP 181604 Mar 03)
  

BALKANS 

• European Union foreign ministers pledged continued political and economic support for Serbia on Tuesday after the slaying of its prime minister but said Belgrade must cooperate fully with the war crimes tribunal. “Full cooperation with the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia) is also essential for the consolidation, in all countries concerned, of well-functioning democratic institutions,” the statement said. (Reuters 182332 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Weeks before his assassination, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic predicted that he would be killed for his drive to reform the country, the chief UN war crimes prosecutor said in an interview. Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte told the Rome daily La Repubblica in an interview published Tuesday that she had met privately with Djindjic on Feb. 17 in Belgrade. “He outlined his plans for reforms in great detail,” she said. “It was then that, all of a sudden, he told me, ‘They will kill me.’” Asked who “they” were, Del Ponte did not respond directly, instead saying Djindjic was planning reforms of the police and military. “It was a very delicate and very dangerous reform. The prime minister was perfectly aware of this,” Del Ponte told La Repubblica. (AP 181344 Mar 03)
  

OTHER NEWS 

• The United States has warned Belgian authorities about the effects of legislation that allows suits against foreign leaders on what Washington considers to be politically motivated charges, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday in Washington. If such prosecutions proliferate, it could be difficult for senior officials to visit Belgium, which hosts NATO headquarters, he told a group of reporters. Powell joked that the next NATO ministerial meeting might be short because of the prosecution threat. “We have cautioned our Belgian colleagues that they need to be very careful about this kind of effort, this kind of legislation, because it makes it hard for us to go places that put you at such easy risk,” he added. “If you show up, next thing you know you’re being... Who knows?” He also said that lawyers in Belgium were also preparing a case against current U.S. President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld “even before anything has happened,” apparently a reference to a possible invasion of Iraq. (Reuters 182254 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Russian lawmakers on Tuesday postponed a vote on ratification of a U.S.-Russian nuclear arms treaty, saying the measure could not be considered amid the tensions over the threat of an imminent U.S. military strike on Iraq and the parliament speaker warned that an attack could endanger the pact. “In the event of an American strike on Iraq the fate of the entire treaty will be in question,” said, Gennady Seleznyov, speaker of the lower house of parliament during a visit to the Czech capital Prague “The Americans are striking at international law,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency. (AP 182052 Mar 03)
  
  
• With U.S. forces poised for battle in Iraq, a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas said Tuesday that the group would not target Americans. The Hamas leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, said in a statement that the militant group’s only enemy is Israel. “Despite the American support for the Zionist entity (Israel) and despite the fact that Iraq is part of our Islamic nation, we consider our battle here in Palestine against the Zionist entity to be our only legitimate battle,” Rantisi said. “The Hamas movement is not going to target any American interests at all, at any time.” The U.S. State Department has included Hamas on a list of terrorist groups. (AP 181343 Mar 03)