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SHAPE
News Summary & Analysis
22
May 2003
IRAQ
- Meeting
opens on contributions for Polish-led peacekeeping force
in Iraq
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ESDP
- Solana
asks for EU troops to aid Congo
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TERRORISM
- Belgium
lays on police operation for security at terrorist trial
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IRAQ
- Military
officials from a dozen mainly East European countries have
begun meeting in Warsaw to discuss providing troops for a
peacekeeping mission in Iraq,
reported the BBC World Service. The program, which recalled
that Poland has already secured technical support
from NATO for the mission, reported that NATO
military experts will go to Warsaw later this week to find
out what Poland needs to run its sector. Polish Radio
1 carried Defense Minister Szmajdzinski stressing the significance
of the NATO decision for the future of Poland’s stabilization
sector. “It means sending delegates to a military committee
to discuss in detail what will be needed. It will probably
mean that we could use information of logistic and intelligence
nature, which will help to set up communications systems,”
Szmajdzinski said. He also stressed that the NATO decision
would have a decisive impact on the course of the Warsaw conference.
AFP quotes diplomats saying military planners would
present their options for Poland within two weeks.
It also cites a Polish Defense Ministry spokesman saying a
Polish advance inspection team had been in Iraq to make arrangements
with American colleagues on procedures for taking over the
Polish-run zone. The mission, led by Gen. Tyszkiewicz, the
officer selected to head the Polish administration, had explored
the expected service conditions of service personnel in the
Polish zone and the living conditions of the local population,
the spokesman reportedly indicated. Earlier, AP quoted the
U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, saying Gen.
Jones would likely present plans for approval next week.
Media focus
on the NAC’s decision to task NATO’s military authorities
to provide advice as soon as possible on the Polish request for
NATO support in the context of their leadership of a sector in
a stabilization force in Iraq. Media generally note that, at least
initially, NATO will have a limited and indirect role. However,
they see the NAC’s unanimous decision as a sign that transatlantic
rifts are beginning to heal.
NATO agreed to support the Polish peacekeeping mission in Iraq,
overcoming some of the bitter trans-Atlantic divisions that the
war has caused and leaving open the option of a greater NATO role
in the future, writes the Wall Street Journal. According to the
newspaper, the Alliance’s decision points to a broader easing
of tensions that have strained ties between the U.S. and Europe,
a well as within Europe and at the UN. “The UN Security
Council is expected this week to consider a resolution that would
lift economic sanctions against Iraq; allow the U.S.-led coalition
to continue running the country; and give the UN a limited role
in Iraq as well. The NATO decision and a possible passage of the
UN resolution, taken together, would signal that the U.S. and
Europe are prepared to bury some of their differences and work
together toward rebuilding Iraq,” stresses the newspaper.
It notes, however, that NATO’s role will be limited and
stop far short of a full-scale involvement on the ground. The
newspaper also quotes a French official saying that NATO’s
swift decisions on increasing its role in Afghanistan and on supporting
Poland in Iraq signal “a greater political willingness to
mend fences.”
The transatlantic rift over the war against Saddam Hussein began
to heal Wednesday when NATO countries agreed to help Poland lead
a contingent of peacekeeping forces in Iraq, writes The Daily
Telegraph, adding: “NATO is likely to provide only modest
technical assistance to Poland, and will not be directly involved
in restoring stability in Iraq. But the move is in stark contrast
with the acrimony earlier this year to block NATO assistance to
Turkey in the run-up to military action.”
NATO moved Wednesday to heal the wounds inflicted by the Iraq
war by agreeing to help Poland run peacekeeping operations in
Iraq, writes The Guardian. It adds that while there is not yet
any talk of a formal NATO military presence in Iraq without a
UN mandate, “the agreement may augur a creeping military
role for NATO.”
“NATO will help Poland,” writes La Libre Belgique,
quoting a Belgian diplomatic source stressing, however, that “there
will be no direct NATO involvement in Iraq.”
ESDP
- EU
security chief Solana wants EU countries to send peacekeeping
troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo in response to
a UN request. He wants any troops sent to be placed under
the EU flag but operate within the existing UN mandate,
reports the Financial Times. France and Britain have been
seeking ways to end the fighting in and around the town of
Bunia in the north-east of Congo, which has already claimed
300,000 lives. EU military officials said it could
be possible to muster sufficient troops but the Europeans
still lacked the strategic airlift capacity to transport soldiers,
equipment and humanitarian aid, adds the newspaper.
TERRORISM
- Belgian
media report that the trial of 23 alleged Islamic militants
accused over the 2001 killing of Afghan commander Masood and
planning anti-U.S. attacks in Europe after Sept. 11, 2001,
opened in Brussels Thursday amid high security. A
related AFP dispatch notes that the trial comes amid a heightened
terrorist alert worldwide, fueled by the airing of a purported
message by a senior Al Qaeda official urging more suicide
attacks against western targets.
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