Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

13 February 2004

IRAQ

• NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Thursday that the military alliance could discuss moving into Iraq once a legitimate Iraqi government supported by the UN takes over power. Mr. De Hoop Scheffer, in London for talks with Prime Minister Blair, said tensions over the Iraq war which split NATO allies were over. “If we...(see) a transfer of sovereignty, if we see a legitimate Iraqi government supported by the UN, if that legitimate Iraqi government...(asks) NATO to take on a more structural role, I think allies would be in a position to constructively discuss that option,” he told reporters. (Reuters 122152 GMT Feb 04)
  
  
• Pentagon officials expressed concern that insurgents may be staging attacks in Iraq based on inside information about U.S. operations after recent strikes against three high-profile Americans. Gen. John Abizaid, who commands U.S. troops in the Gulf region, came under attack on Thursday in Falluja when insurgents shot rocket-propelled grenades at his convoy as it entered a site where Americans train Iraqi civil defense forces. Gen. Abizaid and his party were unharmed. (Reuters 122217 GMT Feb 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• U.S. forces should treat Afghanistan’s opium labs as military targets and strike the facilities that the Taliban and al-Qaida use to help finance their fighting, a House committee chairman said Thursday in Washington. “Opium production in Afghanistan not only undermines Afghan reconstruction but also fuels Islamist terror groups,” said Republican Rep. Hyde, head of the House International Relations Committee. “Now is the time for (the Department of Defense) to treat these labs and opium dumps as legitimate military targets,” until Afghanistan puts together police and a military able to do it, Henry J. Hyde said. The United Nations’ top counter-narcotics official, Antonio Mario Costa, also has urged U.S.-led coalition troops to move against smugglers and labs in Afghanistan. (AP 122104 Feb 04)
  
  
• France wants to boost its role in rebuilding Afghanistan and Eurocorps to take command of NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kabul after Canada pulls out in August, Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said in Kabul. France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, which make up Eurocorps, have been discussing the proposal but have not reached a formal agreement yet. “We want to have the Eurocorps taking the lead for ISAF, just after the Canadians’ time, and I think its important to work all together with our European partners,” de Villepin told reporters after meeting Afghan President Karzai. He also said France wanted to provide more help to Afghanistan although he did not give details. (Reuters 121840 GMT Feb 04)

BALKANS

• Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer voiced support for plans to include Serbia-Montenegro in NATO’s “partnership for peace” program, saying the country’s participation would help bring stability to the Balkans. His comments came during a visit by Serbia-Montenegro’s president, Svetozar Marovic, who is in Turkey for two-days of talks aimed at strengthening economic and political ties. (AP 121620 Feb 04)

IRAN

• Iran hid designs for centrifuges capable of producing material for nuclear bombs from the UN atomic watchdog, diplomats said on Thursday. U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton said it was clear what Tehran was up to. “There’s no doubt in our mind that Iran continues to pursue a nuclear weapons programme,” said Bolton. Western diplomats in Vienna said the International Atomic Energy Agency uncovered designs for an advanced enrichment centrifuge that should have been mentioned in Iran’s October declaration of its atomic programme. They said Iran’s failure to do so was a serious omission. Diplomats said there were striking parallels between nuclear programmes of Iran and Libya. “This, in fact, is the smoking gun,” said Henry Sokolski, head of the Non-proliferation Policy Education Center. He said the IAEA governing board should report Iran to the UN Security Council in March which can impose economic sanctions. (Reuters 121956 GMT Feb 04)