Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

8 May 2003

NATO

• Reflecting U.S. frustration about opposition within NATO to the Iraq war, the Senate on Wednesday said the alliance should consider dropping its requirement that decisions be made by unanimous vote. The request came as the Senate moved toward endorsing the expansion of NATO to include seven eastern European nations. Senators said the new members will boost NATO’s forces by about 200,000 troops and add new bases that can be use for missions worldwide. “These countries already make significant contributions that strengthen the trans-Atlantic relationship,” said Sen. George Voinovich. “They’ve acted as de facto allies. In fact they’ve acted as better allies than some of the members that are currently in NATO.” Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar defended NATO. But he said it still has not fully committed to the fight against terrorism. (AP 072106 May 03)
  
  
• Just two serious candidates have emerged to succeed George Robertson as secretary-general of NATO at the end of this year, but that could be enough for another transatlantic battle of wills. Diplomats said on Wednesday that right now there is a two-horse race between Portugal’s Antonio Vitorino, who is the European Union’s Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner, and Norwegian Defence Minister Kristin Krohn Devold. Washington and other non-EU allies believe the youthful Norwegian could give NATO the makeover it badly needs. NATO foreign ministers will discuss Lord Robertson’s successor at a meeting in Madrid early next month. But diplomats say a final choice is still some way off. (Reuters 071518 GMT May 03)
  
  
• Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday rebuffed criticism by U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz that Turkey had made a mistake by not opening its doors to the U.S. military during the Iraq war. “Turkey, from the very beginning, never made any mistakes, and has taken all the necessary steps in all sincerity,” Erdogan told reporters. U.S. Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman, in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, stood by Wolfowitz’s remarks and said parliament’s refusal to allow the stationing of U.S. troops in the country had left a mark on Turkish-U.S. ties. “We had invested a huge of amount of our energy, our blood, our treasure into doing something we believe is important in Iraq. And I think it’s too bad and difficult that Turkey wasn’t part of that,” Grossman said in an interview with private CNN-Turk television recorded on Tuesday. Deputy Chief of Military Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit on Wednesday rejected the accusation. “The Turkish Armed Forces always carries out its duties in a democratic way. It has done so until now and will continue to do so,” he told reporters. “It would not be normal in a democratic country for the armed forces to intervene after a motion goes to parliament and is rejected there.” (AP 072159 May 03)
  
  
• The French defense minister lashed out at an alleged campaign in the United States to discredit her country, saying France must “send some messages” to prevent a worsening of bilateral ties in the wake of a dispute over Iraq. In an interview to be published Thursday in Le Parisien newspaper, Michele Alliot-Marie insisted the two countries largely agreed on the basics of dealing with the Iraq crisis. But she expressed concern about an American public apparently turning against France following its opposition to the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. “What is worrying are the reactions of an American public opinion heated to white hot by political and media campaigns that undermine trans-Atlantic relations,” the paper quoted Alliot-Marie as saying. “It will be important for us to send some messages in the upcoming months because, if not, this phenomenon could be deep and long-lasting,” she said, without elaborating. In the interview, Alliot-Marie insisted also that France and the United States didn’t disagree on the “core” of the Iraq question, “but on the timetables and methods.” (AP 072128 May 03)

IRAQ

• Germany on Wednesday rejected a Polish proposal to join with Denmark and use a joint three-nation corps for peacekeeping duty in Iraq, but left open whether it might send troops in the future under a UN or NATO umbrella. In Berlin, a Defense Ministry spokesman said the Polish-German-Danish corps is not yet ready to take on foreign mission. (AP 071929 May 03)
  
  
• America’s coalition partners are preparing to deploy peacekeepers, but in numbers so small that the United States likely won’t be able to hand off postwar duties to a large international force anytime soon. Military experts say at least 40,000 troops will be needed to keep the peace. “The force protection and troop requirements are pretty high,” Jonathan Stevenson, a defense specialist with the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Wednesday. “The United States is going to find it difficult to make firm plans to get out in a big way,” he added. As in the war itself, many coalition countries are making what Stevenson, the defense expert, called “purely decorative” offers. NATO could help, he said, if the alliance can overcome sharp divisions over the U.S.-led war and pull together to keep the peace. “The place to start is in post-conflict Iraq,” he said. (AP 071940 May 03)
  
  
• France’s foreign minister on Wednesday called for the creation of a new, “legitimate” government in Iraq, and said the United Nations must take a greater role in the country. Dominique de Villepin told lawmakers the U.S.-led coalition administering Iraq after the defeat of Saddam Hussein provides only a “provisional solution” for the country. (AP 071905 May 03)

MIDDLE EAST

• A top U.S. security official warned Syria that the United States “would be obliged to act” if Damascus allowed Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to enter Syria during the U.S.-led war in Iraq. In an interview published Wednesday with El Pais and three other Spanish newspapers, Condoleezza Rice, national security adviser for U.S. President Bush, said U.S. forces would eventually find chemical, biological or other weapons in Iraq. If weapons of mass destruction were allowed to cross into Syria during the U.S.-led war, it would create a very serious situation and the international community would be forced to act, Rice said, according to El Pais. Asked whether the United States would invade Syria, Condoleezza Rice repeated that the international community “would be obliged to act.” Speaking to reporters in Madrid Wednesday, Syria’s Ambassador to Spain Mohsen Bilal described as “false” the U.S. allegations. (AP 072054 May 03)
  
  
• Lasting peace in the Middle East depends on a “total retreat” by Israel from the territories it seized in the 1967 war, Syria’s ambassador to Spain said Wednesday. Referring to the so-called “road map” to peace in the Middle East Syrian Ambassador Mohsen Bilal said the plan should go beyond the dispute between the Palestinians and Israel. “We have an Arab-Israeli conflict,” Bilal told journalists in Madrid. He said that once Israel accepted the right of Palestinian refugees to return and retreated to the 1967 boundaries, “all Arab countries will be willing to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Total retreat in exchange for total peace.” (AP 071603 May 03)

BALKANS

• NATO on Wednesday welcomed reforms in Serbia and Montenegro and offered to provide help to implement more democratic changes in the country’s bid to join the alliance. NATO ambassadors met with Serbia and Montenegro’s Defense Minister Boris Tadic and armed forces Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Branko Krga, who told the alliance that military reforms were underway. Defense Minister Tadic said that his country needed NATO support to combat corruption and organized crime which he said had plagued the Balkans for years. In response the 19-nation alliance offered to send Serbia and Montenegro a group of experts to advise on reforms. A NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that NATO ambassadors were keen to boost reforms in Belgrade following the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic last month. (AP 071835 May 03)
  
  
• An attacker lobbed a hand grenade near a bar in Kosovo’s capital late Wednesday, injuring four people, a UN spokesman said. Initial reports on the incident were sketchy and a motive for the attack was not clear, said a UN spokesman. (AP 072142 May 03)
  
  
• The U.S. government has committed US $14.4 million to encourage the return of Serbs and other minorities who fled Kosovo during and after the 1999 war, the U.S. Kosovo mission said Wednesday. The money is to be used by non-governmental organizations in Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia (sic) that support the return of displaced people, and by Kosovo agency that handles property issues of those who fled, a statement said. Reno Harnish, the head of the U.S. office in Kosovo, said in a statement that the “time is right for the people to return to Kosovo if they wish to do so.” “This funding shows what a high priority returns are for the American government,” he said in a statement. (AP 071710 May 03)