Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

22 January 2004

IRAQ

• “The U.S. and Britain have begun detailed discussions at the UN about the disputed U.S. plan to hand over power in Iraq, with Secretary General Kofi Annan expected to make an announcement as early as Monday that he will send a UN team to Iraq to help defuse the building political crisis, according to U.S., UN and Iraqi officials,” writes the Washington Post. Focus of the two days of UN talks, continues the newspaper, was on the possibility to elect a new provisional government and options to widen participation to make the U.S. plan acceptable to Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and his many followers who protested in the streets over the past week demanding elections. The daily reports U.S. and Iraqi officials stating that the U.S. and Britain are lobbying the UN to name Lakhdar Brahimi to become the special representative for Iraq, adding that he possesses the credentials for which the U.S. is looking to rebuild a partnership with the world body after a year of tense relations. But, observes the paper, the Iraqi Governing Council also wants a special UN representative appointed during the current transition to help with the upcoming likely more difficult phases at the end of the occupation, when a second 18-month transition begins for Iraq. The article concludes saying that, according to Iraqi Governing Council President Pachachi, the new Transitional Administrative Law, which will serve as a precursor to a constitution, is almost finished. Meanwhile, reported AFP news agency, Jan. 21, U.S. Secretary of State Powell predicted Wednesday in an interview with a Philadelphia radio station that all NATO members would participate in Iraqi stabilization efforts by the end of 2004. “Of those 26 nations in the NATO alliance, 18 of them have troops in the Gulf; have troops in Iraq with us,” he was quoted saying by the dispatch, which argues this is a defense of President Bush’s claim that the war in Iraq had in fact been international in scope and not just a unilateral U.S. move.

NATO

• The Financial Times, in an article echoed also by the Financial Times Deutschland, asserts that the U.S. and Turkey plan to invite representatives of six Middle East and North African countries, including Egypt and Israel, to the June NATO summit in Istanbul in an attempt to pull friendly countries in the region into postwar stability efforts. The paper says the initiative, according to some NATO diplomats, includes a proposal - dubbed the “Greater Middle East” - to enlarge the “Partnership for Peace” program to be extended to Arab countries close to the U.S. Other Arab countries under consideration, adds the article, include Morocco, Tunisia and Qatar.

BALKANS

• NATO and the EU are in initial talks for the EU to take over peacekeeping duties in Bosnia by the end of this year, but the date might be pushed back, top officials were reported saying Wednesday by an AFP report, Jan. 21. NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer reportedly said after talks with EU Foreign Affairs Chief Solana that the two organizations were holding “exploratory contacts” for the EU to replace NATO peacekeepers in Bosnia. “It is a bit difficult to give an exact date. Of course a lot of military planning is necessary. You can’t do this overnight,” he purportedly told reporters, adding that a transfer of SFOR in Bosnia by the end of this year “would not be wide off the mark … but I don’t know if we’re going to make that because it’s a complex operation.” Mr. Solana reportedly said on this subject: “We in the European Union are beginning to prepare for the post-SFOR (situation) in cooperation with NATO. In any case we are ready.” The NATO Secretary General also said, according to the dispatch, one of the issues facing the Alliance was what “residual role” it would exercise in Bosnia. EU countries, concludes the report, agreed in principle to deploy this year a 6,000-strong force of their own in Bosnia to replace SFOR, possibly under British command.

AFGHANISTAN

• The Washington Times announces that the U.S. soon will begin a major drug-eradication effort in Afghanistan, targeting opium production which has recently dramatically increased. The daily specifies that the program will target not only Afghan opium producers, but also drug warlords in that country, many of whom help finance global terrorism. The 310 million dollar program, led by the State Department’s Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), will seek to designate drug kingpins for extradition and prosecution, and to close the Afghan border to opium and heroin traffickers, the major suppliers to Western Europe, who also control 7 percent of the U.S. heroin market. Assistant Secretary Robert B. Charles, head of INL, reportedly said the counter-narcotics and anticrime programs also complement the war on terrorism, through efforts to streamline and support foreign criminal-justice systems and those law enforcement agencies charged with counter-terrorism. Radio Afghanistan, Jan. 21, reported that the Head of Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan Karzai met the U.S. Central Command chief, General Abizaid. The General was quoted saying he congratulated the head of state and the Afghan people for the constitution’s successful adoption and was pleased with the cooperation in the combat against terrorism, which, thanks to this cooperation, will reach its final and decisive stage this year.