Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

11 September 2003

AFGHANISTAN

• Germany and the United States on Wednesday asked NATO to consider expanding the mandate of its Afghan peacekeeping force beyond Kabul to help protect reconstruction teams outside the capital. The proposal was introduced at the weekly meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels. NATO officials said they expected the request would be approved, but were unsure of a timetable. (AP 102036 Sep 03)
  
  
• The United Nations called on Wednesday for U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan to be used in the fight against drug trafficking, to stall the emergence of cartels and organised crime in the war-torn country. “A very major drug power game is being played in Afghanistan at the moment,” Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime told a news conference. “We do see the beginning of a cartelisation in Afghanistan. If these cartels indeed get into organised crime mode... this could be extremely problematic for all of us and the country.” Antonio Maria Costa, who recently returned from a visit to the world’s dominant supplier of opium and its heroin derivative, was speaking at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels after briefing representatives from alliance nations and partner countries. He added that he had already raised with Washington the possibility of using the U.S.-led force of some 11,500 troops -- hunting down Taliban remnants and al Qaeda diehards in Afghanistan -- to put a lid on trafficking. (Reuters 101748 GMT Sep 03)

IRAQ

• The United States rejected on Wednesday proposals by France and Germany to dilute the U.S. occupation administration in Iraq and speed up a transfer of authority to Iraqi politicians. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in an interview with the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera, ridiculed the idea that the United States could give Iraqis power “tomorrow.” Powell said the United States naturally assumed responsibility for Iraq as the power that removed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. He said he had also heard proposals that the United States hand responsibility to the United Nations. “To think that the UN could suddenly take this all over, to the exclusion of the Coalition Provisional Authority, is not realistic. It would not work,” he added. (Reuters 110208 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• France, Germany and Russia have proposed amendments to a U.S. plan for Iraq, calling for a speedy transfer of power from the U.S.-led coalition running the country to an Iraqi interim administration. The French-German amendments and separate Russian amendments ask UN Secretary-General Annan to assist the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council in developing a timetable for establishing a fully representative Iraqi government, including drafting a constitution and holding elections. The Russians ask Kofi Annan to submit a timetable for the specific steps needed to adopt a constitution and hold elections, but don’t go as far as the French and Germans in demanding the immediate handover of authority to the Iraqis. The proposals were given to the United States ahead of a meeting in Geneva on Saturday. (AP 101824 Sep 03)

IRAN

• The United States and at least 20 allies pushed the UN nuclear watchdog’s governing board to pass a resolution on Thursday giving Tehran until October 31 to prove it has no clandestine nuclear weapons programme. Japan, Turkey, Britain, France and Germany joined Washington and over a dozen other nations in supporting a draft offering Iran a last chance to show compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or face possible sanctions. While the draft would probably undergo some changes before being put to a vote, diplomats said the deadline was probably not open to negotiation. (Reuters 102226 GMT Sep 03)