Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

24 October 2003

NATO

• Secretary General Lord Robertson said Thursday that NATO would help support Turkey if the government decided to dispatch peacekeeping troops to Iraq. “If Turkey sends troops to Iraq, we will extend our support there too,” the Anatolia news agency quoted Lord Robertson as saying after his meeting with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. He also said that he had asked for additional Turkish support for the international peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan. “With the alliance’s second largest army, Turkey can and should contribute more to NATO missions,” he added. Lord Robertson said that NATO would provide planning, logistics and communications support to countries who are providing troops to Iraq such as Spain and Poland. (AP 231737 Oct 03)
  
  
• NATO opened a new joint warfare center in the western city of Stavanger, part of a restructuring of the alliance to meet new challenges. The center at the Jaattaa military headquarters will be responsible for training and interoperability of NATO forces from various countries, as well for experimentation with equipment and tactics. A ceremony attended by Norwegian and NATO officials also marked the closing of the Joint Command North Headquarters at Jaattaa, and the transfer of command to the new Allied Command Transformation headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. (AP 231522 Oct 03)
  
  
• Belgium ruled out sending troops to Iraq, saying Thursday that the latest UN resolution did not give the United Nations sufficient control over peacekeeping there. But Defense Minister Flahaut confirmed Belgium was planning to send more troops to Afghanistan to join a German-led peacekeeping mission in Kunduz. The government also announced it aims to pledge 4 million to 5 million euro to help rebuild Iraq at an international donors’ meeting in Madrid. Minister Flahaut said the U.S.-sponsored resolution adopted by the UN Security Council last week “did not give enough guarantees on the military level” to allow Belgium to send peacekeepers. “In the current situation there is no question of sending troops to Iraq,” he told RTBF radio. (AP 231052 Oct 03)

ESDP

• The European Parliament called on Thursday for the creation of a European military planning capacity and a multinational headquarters separate from NATO. The parliament report is not binding on member states. A report by the parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, adopted by the whole house on Thursday, said further consolidation of EU-NATO ties was important for European security, but called for separate capabilities. (Reuters 231737 GMT Oct 03)

WAR ON TERRORISM

• A leading Islamic extremist group in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), has declared its allegiance to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network. The statement was signed by the man considered to be the group’s new leader, Nabil Sahraoui, also known as Abu Ibrahim Mustapha. Excerpts were published in the daily Le Quotidien d’Oran on Thursday. The statement underscored what appears to be a growing international bent by the GSPC, which authorities in France and Algeria have linked to al-Qaida. The group is also on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. (AP 232018 Oct 03)