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SHAPE News Morning Update
19
February 2004
NATO
- NATO
foreign ministers to hold April meeting on Afghanistan
and Iraq
AFGHANISTAN
- NATO
force confident Afghan elections can proceed
IRAQ
- Italian
Senate approves funding for continued force in Iraq,
Italian president urges stepped up UN role soon
MIDDLE EAST
- Palestinian
prime minister calls for international peacekeepers
to follow Israeli pullout from Gaza
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NATO
- NATO
foreign ministers will hold a special meeting on April 2 that
is expected to be dominated by discussion of the alliance’s
role in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans, officials
said Wednesday in Brussels. The meeting will also prepare
for a summit of NATO leaders scheduled June 28-29 in Istanbul.
(AP 181606 Feb 04)
AFGHANISTAN
- The
new head of the NATO-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan voiced
confidence that free and fair elections could be held in the
country, despite a Taliban threat to attack any Afghans who
vote. “We think the security environment is
improving and will get to the point where successful elections
can occur and be free and fair,” said Lt. Gen. Rick
Hillier, the Canadian commander of ISAF. “Whether that’s
early summer, middle summer or late summer, is a judgment
that the president (of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai) will make,”
he added. (Reuters 181705 GMT Feb 04)
IRAQ
- Italy’s
president urged a stepped up role soon for the UN in Iraq’s
post-war reconstruction as the Italian Senate voted Wednesday
to continue funding the nation’s peacekeeping mission
in Iraq. “We hope that reconstruction of the
country can truly leap forward and that there is soon - it
seems to me that there are some positive signs - a full commitment
by the United Nations,” President Ciampi told reporters
in Rome. (AP 182021 Feb 04)
MIDDLE EAST
- Palestinian
Prime Minister Qureia called for an international peacekeeping
force to monitor borders if Israeli Prime Minister Sharon
goes ahead with a proposal to pull out from most of the Gaza
Strip. Addressing the foreign affairs committee of
the European Parliament, Ahmed Qureia said the Palestinian
Authority would be capable of running the area once Israel
left, but that international troops would help provide
“confidence” for Israel. “I think
we need international forces or peacekeeping forces at that
time,” he said, urging Europeans to play a role. EU
foreign policy representative Javier Solana said after meeting
him that the EU would be “open to discussions”
about peacekeepers as long as any Israeli withdrawal was “in
the spirit” of the internationally backed road map.
(AP 181748 Feb 04)
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