Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

05 December 2003

IRAQ

• U.S. Secretary of State Powell has succeeded in re-igniting a debate on NATO assuming a direct military role in Iraq, but it’s unlikely to bring an immediate increase in the alliance’s involvement. Colin Powell himself acknowledged on Thursday that NATO’s immediate focus for the coming months will be on Afghanistan. And although Powell said none of the allies had objected to his call for a wider NATO role, diplomats suggested the silence of France and Germany did not necessarily signal acquiescence from the two allies most critical of U.S. intervention in Iraq. Berlin and Paris are likely to demand the United States cede more control of the military operation to the United Nations before they agree to sending NATO troops. However, Colin Powell did win immediate backing from Spain, Italy and Poland. “The time has come to consider a more direct role of the alliance in providing a framework of security for ... Iraq,” said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. U.S. supporters see a gradual deepening of involvement in Iraq following the path NATO has taken in Afghanistan. (AP 050030 Dec 03)
  
  
• U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Thursday he hoped that Germany would feel able to give more help to the country when Iraqis are granted more control. He told Germany’s ARD television in an interview recorded during a visit to NATO in Brussels, that he hoped Germany would consider doing more next year when the U.S.-led administration transfers more power to an Iraqi authority. Powell told ARD that if NATO took on a bigger role in Iraq, Germany might find it possible to do more. (Reuters 042247 GMT Dec 03)
  
  
• Members of the Baath party, the former political base of ousted president Saddam Hussein, have started to regroup, according to Britain’s special representative to Iraq, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The newspaper said former Baathist leaders who had fallen out with Saddam in the past want to set up a party under a new name to participate in the country’s new political climate, with Iraq’s former leader excluded from joining the organisation. There was “evidence of motivation and the beginning of some activity” among Baathists, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, told the Financial Times. “Iraqis will be watching this very closely.” (Reuters 050335 GMT Dec 03)

RUSSIA

• Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov countered U.S. criticism of the Russian troop presence in Moldova and Georgia by demanding NATO ratify a 1999 arms control treaty before it expands eastward next year. Russia wants the alliance to finalize the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty to allay long-standing fears about the possible deployment of forces in new NATO states on its borders. The treaty regulates the deployment of warplanes, tanks and other heavy non-nuclear weapons around the continent. Despite the differences, Foreign Minister Ivanov and NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said relations between Russia and the alliance were much improved. “Those who expect recent events in Georgia to cause a deterioration in relations between the United States and Russia, will be wrong,” Igor Ivanov added. (AP 042002 Dec 03)

BALKANS

• Extremists linked to Slobodan Milosevic and wartime atrocities are poised to win upcoming general elections, Serbia’s reformist prime minister acknowledged on Thursday. He said the West was partly to blame. In an interview with The Associated Press, Prime Minister Zoran Zivkovic said UN prosecutions of Milosevic and other key figures for war crimes have backfired by making them “more popular than they had been before.” He commented ahead of Dec. 28 general elections that all recent polls say will be won by the extreme nationalist Radical Party. (AP 041913 Dec 03)
  
  
• NATO foreign ministers launched talks with the EU to prepare to hand over control of the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia next year. “Allies will assess options ... to include possible termination of SFOR by the end of 2004 (and) transition possibly to a new EU mission,” the ministers said in a statement in Brussels. (AP 041335 Dec 03)

OTHER NEWS

• The Pentagon is considering formation of a specialized force to help shepherd war-torn countries from the end of major combat to the start of civilian nation-building, government officials say in Washington. In an about-face for the Bush administration, defence officials are quietly examining proposals including a small joint-services unit of a few thousand troops that could be assembled in as little as a year to perform policing, civil affairs, engineering, medical and other duties in hot spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan. A study, ordered by the Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation and written by the National Defence University, also proposes an ambitious long-term Army reorganization to create up to two active divisions for a combined 30,000 active-duty and reserve troops dedicated to stabilization and reconstruction duties under new joint command. (Reuters 042144 GMT Dec 03)