Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

22 January 2004

TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS

• French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said on Wednesday that she thought the U.S. wanted to end its rift with Paris over the Iraq war. She said Washington was keen to end the split because the United States needed France’s cooperation on a host of defence, security and diplomatic matters. Alliot-Marie, in another sign of a possible warming of badly strained ties between Paris and Washington, said events in Iraq may have made it easier for Washington to understand France’s opposition to the war last year to oust Saddam Hussein. She said the U.S. now wanted to make use of France’s expertise and traditionally good ties in the Arab world, needed its help in tackling international terrorism and other crimes, and sought deeper cooperation in military matters. Washington had also appreciated the work of French troops in conflict areas such as Afghanistan and the Balkans, she said. “I think there is also less reticence and more of a search for understanding of the foreign security policy of France and Europe and a will to better combine the defence action of Europe and of NATO,” she added. (Reuters 211853 GMT Jan 04)

NATO-ENLARGEMENT

• Poland urged NATO not to shut out Ukraine after the Western military alliance admits seven ex-communist countries as new members this year. “NATO’s door should remain open. We think about Ukraine’s aspirations in particular,” Foreign Minister Cimoszewicz told parliament in an annual foreign policy address. “Ukraine’s security and defence reforms as well as its contribution to the stabilisation of Iraq should be appreciated,” he said, adding NATO’s summit in June should give a new impulse for Ukraine’s membership effort. But diplomats say its NATO membership bid is being undermined by poor standards of democracy and limits on media. NATO’s new chief, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, expressed concern last week that a lack of media freedom could skew presidential elections due in Ukraine in October, which he said were an important yardstick for measuring NATO-Ukraine relations. (Reuters 211059 GMT Jan 04)

IRAQ

• Iraq’s most influential Shi’ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is likely to drop his demand for early elections if the United Nations concludes they would not be feasible, a Shi’ite political leader said on Wednesday. The comments by the head of Iraq’s Shi’ite Dawa party, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, were likely to be some comfort for coalition powers facing mass protests demanding polls before a handover of power. Washington may also draw encouragement from an announcement by Saudi Arabia it could discuss a major reduction of Iraqi debt. (Reuters 212207 GMT Jan 04)
  
• U.S. Vice President Cheney, on the eve of a European trip where he will seek to mend divisions over Iraq, said that the U.S. had not given up on finding unconventional weapons at the heart of its disputed case for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. “The jury is still out,” Dick Cheney said in a radio interview, referring to the failure so far to find stockpiles of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. He spoke in an interview with the National Public Radio, which is expected to air on Thursday. His five-day European trip begins also on Thursday. (Reuters 212336 GMT Jan 04)