Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

5 September 2003

NATO

• NATO is not yet considering a formal role in Iraq, the head of the alliance said Thursday in Budapest. While NATO was already “in principle” in Iraq through its “invaluable” support of a Polish-led peacekeeping force, Secretary-General Lord Robertson said a larger presence for the alliance was not yet being deliberated. Asked about NATO’s peacekeeping role in Afghanistan, Lord Robertson said that the alliance “could not let it fail.” For his part, Hungarian Prime Minister Medgyessy said that Hungary favoured a “balanced trans-Atlantic alliance, where we don’t have to choose between Europe and America.” (AP 041609 Sep 03)

IRAQ

• France and Germany rejected on Thursday U.S. proposals for a UN resolution enlisting international help for the battered nation. They said the resolution did not cede sufficient power quickly enough to Iraqis or to the United Nations. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking as Defense Secretary Rumsfeld made an unexpected visit to Iraq and urged allies to send an extra 15,000 troops to the country, said Washington would consider the criticism of its NATO partners. (Reuters 042016 GMT Sep 03)
• Iraq’s U.S.-backed Governing Council opposes the deployment of peacekeeping troops in the country from any neighbouring state, including Turkey. Iraq’s new foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, also said Turkey’s past military engagements into northern Iraq in chase of Kurdish rebels have “created many problems and complications.” “We don’t want such interventions to happen because they will further complicate” efforts to restore order, Zebari told the Arabic satellite television channel Al-Jazeera in an interview from Baghdad on Tuesday and monitored in Cairo. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after a Cabinet meeting that Zebari’s comments were “his own ... we don’t at this moment have a decision on whether to send troops or not.” Foreign Minister Zebari said U.S. troops in Iraq should start to be rotated with Arab and Islamic forces to take part in peacekeeping operations. He added that post-Saddam Iraq wanted to “establish the best relations with neighbouring Turkey. We are bound by friendship, brotherhood, common interests and mutual respect.” (AP 041949 Sep 03)

BALKANS

• The defense ministers of France and Germany on Thursday said that the European Union should push ahead with plans to replace NATO as the lead peacekeeper in Bosnia next year, despite reservations from the United States. German Defense Minister Peter Struck was adamant that the European Union “will take up the mandate ... in Bosnia next year.” His French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie said the aim was for the EU to take over the NATO-led SFOR peacekeeping force “by the middle of 2004.” (AP 041656 Sep 03)
• Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic warned Thursday that a push for independence by Kosovo Albanians poses “a dangerous dream” and that Serbia would never agree to give up the southern province. “The dream of independence for Kosovo will remain just that - an unrealized, dangerous dream of extremist ethnic Albanians,” Zivkovic said at a session of Serbia and Montenegro’s parliament. Ahead of the session, the union president, Svetozar Marovic, urged the lawmakers “not to let emotions overpower common sense.” (AP 042222 Sep 03)

OTHER NEWS

• Lt. Gen. Jean-Louis Py of France took command of Eurocorps on Thursday, replacing Germany’s Lt. Gen. Kammerhoff at the head of the five-nation military force. Defense ministers from France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg attended a ceremony in Strasbourg to mark the change of command and celebrate the 10th anniversary of the force of 60,000 soldiers. Spain’s Defense Minister Trillo pulled out because of parliamentary commitments in Madrid. Lt. Gen. Kammerhoff is leaving to take command of the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo next month. “Eurocorps is a pioneer and a model for European defense,” said French Defense Minister Michele Alliot-Marie. (AP 041537 Sep 03)
• The United States and 10 allies stepped up plans on Thursday to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction despite a warning from China that the move could be illegal. Four nations, the United States, Australia, Japan and France, will send ships to the Western Pacific next week for an exercise simulating an interception, John Bolton, Washington’s top arms control official, said after their talks in Paris. Next week’s “Pacific Protector” exercise is the first of 10 planned in coming months. The seven other nations in the Proliferation Security Initiative are Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain. A senior U.S. official in Washington said efforts to recruit new members of the initiative would begin “relatively soon.” The next meeting of the group will be Oct. 9-10 in London. (Reuters 042300 GMT Sep 03)