Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

18 September 2003

BALKANS

• The top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday that U.S. peacekeeping troops in the Balkans would not be pulled out unilaterally from Kosovo or Bosnia. But Air Force General Richard Myers said the United States was reassessing its involvement with an option “on the table” for a European force to take over. Gen. Myers arrived in Kosovo to meet U.S. troops and commanders and will also travel to Bosnia, Hungary and Poland, returning to the United States on Friday. (Reuters 171832 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• NATO-led peacekeepers have found four large caches of illegal weapons and ammunition in Bosnia, the alliance said Wednesday. Peacekeepers found the weapons on Tuesday in a remote area near Prijedor. (AP 171524 Sep 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• NATO nations are edging closer to an agreement that would launch military planning for an expansion of alliance peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday in Brussels. The officials said a decision to order NATO’s military experts to draw up the plans could come within the next few days. (AP 171604 Sep 03)

IRAQ

• Iraq’s interim Governing Council urged the United States on Wednesday to give Iraqis sovereign control of their country in order to end the violence that has eroded society and crippled reconstruction efforts. “I believe the coalition authorities, as they see the performance of the Governing Council...will come to realise that it is in their interest to move rapidly to restore sovereignty,” said Ahmad Chalabi, who holds the council’s rotating presidency. “Problems of security are huge and it is in large measure because Iraqis are not involved in security issues,” he added. Also on Wednesday, the Arabic television channel Al Arabiya aired an audio tape it said was from Saddam Hussein which he demanded Washington withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq or face “catastrophic” losses. (Reuters 171831 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar called on Wednesday for a multinational military force outside of UN authority in Iraq. “The argument about sending forces (to Iraq) under the United Nations flag is useless,” Aznar told a meeting of European Popular Party delegates in Madrid. (Reuters 171517 GMT 03)
  
  
• German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was quoted on Wednesday as saying a concrete schedule was urgently needed for the handover of power to Iraqis. In an interview with the Handelsblatt business daily released ahead of publication on Thursday, Schroeder also said Germany wanted an important role for the United Nations in Iraq. He will host French President Chirac in Berlin on Thursday for talks likely to discuss joint efforts to persuade Washington to give the United Nations a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq and a speedier handover of control to Iraqis. (Reuters 172040 GMT Sep 03)

RUSSIA

• President Putin said on Wednesday that he has signed an order for the creation of a naval base at Novorossiisk, on the Black Sea, and called the region a strategically important area for Russia. He said that the plan for a Black Sea Fleet base in Novorossiisk does not mean that Russia will abandon the base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, which is the fleet’s headquarters, the Interfax news agency reported. (AP 172107 Sep 03)