Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

27 April 2004

NATO

• NATO will only consider a wider role in Iraq if a string of conditions are met including a U.S. handover to a "credible" government in Baghdad, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Monday. "Afghanistan...is clearly the first priority," de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference after talks with Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. "The alliance should do more to get the necessary forces on the ground in Afghanistan." However, asked whether NATO would consider a bigger role in Iraq, de Hoop Scheffer laid out a string of pre-conditions. "If there is a sovereign, legitimate Iraqi government with full powers after June 30, and that government would direct a request to NATO, and if that request would be made on the basis of a new (UN) Security Council resolution, giving a specific mandate to a stabilisation force, then I think NATO allies could enter in that discussion," he said. "But I say sovereign, legitimate and credible Iraqi government and a new UN Security Council resolution. Those are the all-important yardsticks," he added. (Reuters 261322 GMT Apr 04)
  
  
• "I sincerely hope that the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq will mean that a legitimate, sovereign and credible Iraqi government will come into place," the alliance’s secretary general said. Scheffer said NATO troops were needed in Afghanistan. “The alliance should do more, by the way, to get necessary forces on the ground in Afghanistan,” he said. "My plea and my appeal to all NATO allies, including Norway, is to do as much as they can to make the Afghanistan ISAF operation a success." Scheffer said NATO sometimes has trouble mobilizing 55,000 troops for missions, even though its 26 members have a total of 1.5 million people in their combined armed forces. "We have difficulties, from time to time, in quickly deploying these forces," he said. "So we should make our forces much more usable." And he said the alliance still faces challenges closer to home in Europe, such as in Kosovo. "I do not think there is enough responsibility being taken by the majority (Albanian) leadership in Kosovo at the moment and we really need it, if possible with full Serb participation," he said. He said the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force must remain in Kosovo. (AP 261210 Apr 04)

TERRORISM

• Al-Qaida plotted bomb and poison gas attacks against the U.S. Embassy and other targets in Jordan, suspects confessed in a videotape broadcast on Jordanian state television. A commentator said the plotters hoped to kill 80,000 people. One of the alleged conspirators, Azmi al-Jayousi, said he was acting on the orders of Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian wanted by the U.S. for allegedly organizing terrorists to fight U.S. troops in Iraq on behalf of al-Qaida. Another Jordanian suspect, Hussein Sharif, said al-Jayousi told him the aim was "carrying out the first suicide attack to be launched by al-Qaida using chemicals ... striking at Jordan, its Hashemite (royal family) and launching war on the Crusaders and nonbelievers." Al-Jayousi said he received about $170,000 from al-Zarqawi to finance the plot and used part of it to buy 20 tons of chemicals. He did not identify the chemicals, but said they "were enough for all the operations in the Jordanian arena." (AP 270118 Apr 04)
  
  
• The U.S. win approval of the Security Council this week for a resolution aimed at keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists and black marketeers. Current treaties dealing with weapons of mass destruction largely target governments, not "non-state actors," such as corrupt scientists, black marketeers and terrorists. The resolution would require all 191 UN member states to pass laws to prevent "non-state actors" from manufacturing, acquiring or trafficking in nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, the materials to make them, and the missiles and other systems to deliver them. To meet concerns from some countries that the resolution was trying to "impose requirements on their legislators," The resolution would also require all countries to stop providing "any form of support to non-state actors" and to take measures to account for, and secure, all banned weapons, missiles and weapons material. It also would require countries to develop border controls and step up law enforcement efforts "to detect, deter, prevent and combat ... the illicit trafficking and brokering in such items." The resolution would have the Security Council act under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which allows military enforcement if necessary. The Non-Aligned Movement, representing 116 mostly developing nations, objected to this provision. (AP 270144 Apr 04)

OTHER NEWS

• Cooperation between Balkan countries to provide security for the Aug. 13-29 Games will help police crack down on trafficking gangs that smuggle people, guns and drugs across the region, Greece's public order minister said Monday. "Our joint goal is to create a shield that will protect all Balkan countries from organized crime, not just during the Olympics but afterward, too," Giorgos Voulgarakis said. Voulgarakis met Albanian Public Order Minister Igli Toska as part of a series of consultations with neighboring countries to improve border policing and information sharing between police forces in the region. "We hold identical views on fighting organized crime and terrorism," Toska said. He said Greece and Albania plan to create several crime fighting task forces made up of officers from both countries. (AP 261059 Apr 04)