Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

3 April 2003

AFGHANISTAN

• The 19 NATO allies asked military planners on Wednesday to study options to give the alliance a greater peacekeeping role in Afghanistan, including the possibility of putting it fully in charge of the operation. “NATO nations are interested in looking at all possibilities to maximize the support NATO can lend to international peacekeepers” in Afghanistan, said an alliance official, who asked not to be named. The meeting of NATO ambassadors gave military planners no firm deadline. (AP 021508 Apr 03)

IRAQ

• Greek Premier Costas Simitis called on Wednesday for the United Nations to take a leading role in Iraq’s reconstruction, warning that U.S. and British dominance in its postwar affairs will anger Arab countries and possibly fuel terrorism. Greece holds the European Union presidency and Simitis’ comments reflect the likely position to be taken by the 15-nation body when its officials meet in Brussels on Thursday with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. “The UN must have a decisive presence in Iraq in the period after the war. The management of issues in this period by the belligerents will cause new confrontations and crises. The dominant role of the belligerents rules out the necessary cooperation of the Arab world to overcome the wounds of war,” Simitis told the European Parliament’s Socialist group, which met in Athens. According to Simitis, Arab leaders warned him in recent phone calls they feared a wave of angry reactions throughout the Middle East if the United States and Britain jointly administered Iraq, and that terror attacks could follow the fall of Baghdad. (AP 021339 Apr 03)
  
  
• Support for the war in Iraq has dropped below 50 percent in Britain for the first time since the conflict started, according to a poll published on Thursday. But the poll for GMTV and the Daily Mirror tabloid showed an overwhelming 78 percent do not want British troops brought home until the war is over, however long it takes. The poll put support for the war at 48 percent. (Reuters 022351 GMT Apr 03)

NATO

• Seven ex-communist states set to join NATO will discuss in Romania this week ways to help each other’s bids and their the role in the enlarged military alliance, officials said on Wednesday in Bucharest. In a statement, Romania said its prime minister would be joined on Saturday by those of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia as well as the foreign minister of Slovenia to discuss a joint strategy to support “each other's accession efforts.” (Reuters 021625 GMT Apr 03)

EU

• Germany said on Wednesday a core group of EU states may have to forge common defence, security or foreign policies if it proves impossible to get all members on board at once. Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said there was broad agreement within Europe that the bloc needed to play a stronger role in world affairs, and this included boosting its defence capabilities in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper. He said the war in Iraq had strengthend Europe’s awareness that it had to integrate to make its voice heard. “We mustn’t blame the United States for our weakness, we must strengthen our integration,” he added. (Reuters 022127 GMT Apr 03)
  
  
• The Financial Times said on Thursday that EU Commission President Romano Prodi had told colleagues he was prepared to serve a second term in office with greater powers if European Union leaders ask him to do so. Officials close to Prodi said that while he would not campaign to stay in his job, he was ready to continue if asked by EU leaders in the European Council, the newspaper reported. (Reuters 030211 GMT Apr 03)

BALKANS

• Bosnia’s top publicly elected official, Mirko Sarovic, abruptly quit Wednesday after being implicated in a local company’s violation of the UN arms embargo against Iraq. In a related development, Bosnia’s top international official Paddy Ashdown amended the constitutions of Bosnia’s two parts to transfer the control of their armed forces to the national level. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and the EU’s commissioner for external relations, Chris Patten, welcomed Sarovic’s resignation and Ashdown’s decisions. Lord Robertson said Sarovic’s behavior “represents the mind-set of people who are still living in the past” while Patten noted the exports to Iraq had “severely damaged the interests of (Bosnia) and all its citizens.” (AP 021534 Apr 03)