Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

26 March 2003

IRAQ

• Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Tuesday that Turkey plans to send forces up to 20 kilometers (12 miles) into northern Iraq to stop any flood of refugees, but in an apparent softening of his country’s position, said Turkey will only act if a crisis situation develops. In Ankara, U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said Gul’s comments were “a positive development.” “We will talk, we will cooperate,” Gul said when asked about U.S.-Turkish relations. “We need each other.” In Brussels, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said the alliance has yet to decide on Turkish proposals to create a buffer zone up to 20 kilometers wide in northern Iraq. “No decisions have been taken yet,” he told reporters. “There is no upsurge of refugees in the region at the moment, so the situation does not arise.” (AP 252116 Mar 03)
  
• Secretary of State Colin Powell urged France on Tuesday to recognize that the regime in Iraq is finished and to join the United States in planning for a better life for the Iraqi people. Powell, in an interview broadcast on France 3 evening news, said it was time to put aside the debate on using force to disarm Iraq. Questioned about France’s prewar offer to support the U.S.-led coalition if Iraq used chemical weapons, Powell said “the fact is, if France wanted to help us, our troops are in just as much danger from high explosive rounds as they are from chemical rounds.” “So I’m not sure what the particular distinction is,” he said. (AP 252019 Mar 03)
  
  
• Georgia and the United States are in talks about U.S. forces using military bases in the south Caucasus republic for military action against Iraq, the Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. The Georgian Defence Ministry spokeswoman did not go into detail about the talks but Georgian military experts see three military airports – two close to Tbilisi and one in the west of the country – as possible sites, for U.S. planes. (Reuters 251415 GMT Mar 03)
  

NATO

• Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov appealed to NATO on Tuesday to help his country fight drug smuggling and boost stability in Central Asia. On a first visit to NATO headquarters, Rakhmonov said Tajikistan wanted to build closer links with the western military alliance. “As an organization responsible for supporting peace and stability, NATO must help us with very substantial assistance so we can effectively resist new threats and challenges,” he told reporters in Brussels. President Rakhmonov suggested NATO should conclude a “partnership” with Afghanistan similar to the outreach programs it has with former Soviet republics to promote political and military cooperation. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said such a move isn’t yet on the NATO agenda. (AP 251828 Mar 03)
  
  
• Germany’s top court spared the government potential embarrassment on Tuesday by ruling it did not need to get parliamentary backing for allowing German crews to help man NATO flights patrolling the skies over Turkey. The Federal Constitutional Court rejected a bid by the opposition liberal Free Democrats to force the government to call a parliamentary vote on German participation. (Reuters 252023 GMT Mar 03)
  

EU

• The leaders of France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg will meet April 29 in Brussels to discuss a common European defense. Proposed by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, the aim is to generate common defense planning among European nations outside of NATO. The EU treaty has a defense chapter that deals only with peacekeeping missions. (AP 251634 Mar 03)

BALKANS

• Serbian police have arrested Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic’s suspected assassin, Zvezdan Jovanovic, a deputy commander of a war-hardened special police unit set up during the rule of Slobodan Milosevic, the government said on Tuesday in Belgrade. The government also decided to disband the Unit for Special Operations (JSO). (Reuters 252159 GMT Mar 03)

MIDDLE EAST

• Britain said on Tuesday that the West was hypocritical not to demand the same sort of adherence to UN Security Council resolutions for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as it does from Iraq. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw told the BBC World Service he understood Arab concern about what he described as “injustice against the Palestinians.” Asked if he would plead guilty to double standards, Straw said: “To a degree yes...and we’re going to deal with it.” He described a new Middle East “roadmap” as a necessary step towards peace. (Reuters 252242 GMT Mar 03)

OTHER NEWS

• France’s foreign minister on Tuesday defended allowing American and British military flights over his country, arguing that such cooperation was normal between two allies. Dominique de Villepin also said in Parliament that other members of the NATO alliance, including those opposed to the war in Iraq, have not complained about the flights over France. (AP 251720 Mar 03)