Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

4 June 2003

NATO

• An AFP dispatch, June 3, reports that NATO Foreign Ministers pledged to put the Iraq crisis firmly behind them on Tuesday and proclaimed the Alliance’s increasing expansion beyond its traditional European field of activities, including into the Middle East. The report also quotes Lord Robertson saying that the Alliance, due to support Poland in Iraq from July and take command of peacekeeping in Afghanistan in August, could even play a role in a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The discussion reportedly came after U.S. officials briefed the foreign ministers on the latest peace talks in the region, attended by President Bush and Secretary of State Powell. Le Soir, in a related article, reports the Belgian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs saying that some Alliance member states, such as Belgium, showed more prudence on this subject, warning that NATO should not lose sight of its fundamental mission, that is to ensure the defense of its members, adding there is a risk to disperse efforts. Another AFP dispatch reports that the U.S. denied on Tuesday any dispute with Europe over a handover of peacekeepers in Bosnia from NATO to the EU, after a U.S. official said it was “premature” to discuss the transfer. However, according to the report, one NATO diplomat acknowledged there was a certain disagreement, if only between the U.S. and “a few countries”, led by France, who want to press ahead with the Bosnia mission. Lord Robertson was quoted saying: “The offer by the EU has been received, and will be considered, and given that we have handed over our mission in Macedonia (sic) to the EU, then it’s obviously the kind of business that NATO would expect to be discussing the issue in the very near future.”

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS

• According to the Washington Post, at the summit’s end, the final statement looked more like it could have been drafted by the White House than by President Chirac’s Elysee Palace, arguing that it was President Bush’s imprint that was most evident. The U.S. and its allies, observes the daily, appear to have won another major victory on the issue of arms proliferation and weapons of mass destruction. Bush administration wanted the G-8 to endorse a strong statement on the need to limit weapons proliferation and the summit produced such a strong U.S. backed statement calling weapons of mass destruction the world’s “preeminent threat”, as well as a tough warning to Iran about its weapons program which, one U.S. official is quoted saying, could be used as a basis for military action. The daily concludes quoting President Chirac saying, speaking later specifically of the threat from the Teheran government’s nuclear program: “There never was any talk of using force whatsoever. We have to have a dialogue with Iran.”

IRAQ

• Chief UN weapons inspector Blix, who will retire at the end of this month, said in his final report to the Security Council that his experts had left with unanswered questions, notably about stockpiles of anthrax and VX gas, writes The Independent. He also pleaded again for the agency to be left intact and active. “It would be inadvisable to undertake any drastic overall reduction in the present cadre of staff that is fully acquainted with the database and vast archives,” he reportedly said. Under pressure from other Council members, argues the newspaper, including Britain, the U.S. agreed last month to return to the question of whether UN inspectors may return to Iraq in the future. Mr. Blix said the Inspection Commission could be ready to return to work in Iraq within two weeks if asked to do so.