Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

25 July 2003

NATO

• The lower chamber of the Czech parliament voted Thursday to overwhelmingly approve expanding NATO membership to seven eastern European countries. The upper chamber of the parliament, the Senate, must still vote on the matter, but is expected to also easily ratify NATO expansion. It is expected to take up the matter in August. (AP 241535 Jul 03)

IRAQ

• The United States is stepping up the pressure on more countries, trying to persuade them to send troops to Iraq, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff told senators on Thursday in Washington. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers said 19 nations have sent troops so far and 15 more have agreed to do so, but that force of 20,000 to 30,000 won’t be enough. “It needs to grow higher than that,” Gen. Myers said, adding that the United States was negotiating with Pakistan, India and Turkey and may ask NATO to supply troops. Gen. Myers acknowledged that some nations want Islamic countries in the Middle East to approve the assistance, while others are waiting for the United Nations to become involved. (AP 242059 Jul 03)
  
  
• The United States pressed Turkey on Thursday to make a quick decision on a U.S. request to send troops to Iraq and said it had assurances that the Turkish government would give it high priority. Turkish media speculate that some 3,000 Turkish troops may be deployed around Baghdad and Tikrit, where U.S. forces encounter regular guerrilla attacks, rather than northern Iraq where Washington fears Turkish forces could clash with Kurds. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the request on Thursday with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Washington. Asked if Turkey would need a UN mandate, Abdullah Gul said: “NATO involvement definitely will make the job easier.” Powell said in an interview released on Thursday that the United States was considering going to the UN Security Council for a new mandate giving the United Nations a bigger role in Iraq. The aim would be to make more countries “feel comfortable in joining in the effort,” he told the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation. (Reuters 241926 GMT Jul 03)

BALKANS

• One person was killed and four were injured on Thursday when two explosive devices were thrown at UN police headquarters in Kosovo’s ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, UN officials said. No further details were immediately available. (Reuters 242305 GMT Jul 03)
  
  
• He failed twice in 2002 to win the Serbian presidency and his job as Yugoslavia’s head of state disappeared when the bloodied federation ceased to exist. But Vojislav Kostunica is still Serbia’s most popular politician, according to a recent opinion poll, and the former Yugoslav president hopes to return to power soon. He said that Serbia is heading for a winter of social discontent and predicts Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic, his political opponent, will face growing calls for early elections. (Reuters 250104 GMT Jul 03)

LIBERIA

• The amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, leading a three-ship group carrying 2,300 Marines, has entered the Mediterranean Sea for possible duty in a Liberia operation, the Pentagon said on Thursday. “The president has not yet made a decision as to whether or not the United States would commit troops beyond logistics and support troops and efforts,” said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. “Most of that logistic efforts would probably be by contractor support and not by troop support but we have an open mind on that,” he added. (Reuters 242107 GMT Jul 03)

IRAN

• A member of Iran’s top security body said Tehran would pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if any of its nuclear facilities came under military attack, a newspaper reported on Thursday in Tehran. “Because we have obtained the essential (nuclear) technology, if they attack our facilities, we will withdraw from the NPT,” the afternoon Kayhan daily quoted Ali Larijani, member of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying. “If that case arose, our activities would go underground,” Larijani, who is also head of Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB said. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said earlier this week Iran had no intention of pulling out of the NPT despite calls from some hard-line conservatives in the Islamic Republic to do so. (Reuters 241437 GMT Jul 03)