Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

4 March 2003

IRAQ

• Turkey’s surprise rejection of U.S. troops for any invasion of Iraq could now delay an attack until late March or early April and spark problems over control of northern Iraq’s oil fields, U.S. officials and defense experts said on Monday in Washington. In Stuttgart, Germany, a top U.S. military official said on Monday that any war in Iraq would be successful even without a northern front from Turkey. “I don’t think it’s absolutely a showstopper in terms of whether you have a northern front or not,” said Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, the supreme allied commander of NATO forces in Europe and head of the United States European Command. “We’re going to be successful regardless of what we’re limited to,” he added. (Reuters 032312 GMT Mar 03)

NATO

• NATO said on Monday that members had to do more to boost Turkey’s defence against a possible attack from Iraq after a meeting of senior military officers left some gaps in a list of required equipment. Alliance military planners had asked for more Patriot air defence batteries and missiles, but Germany - probably the only country which has such systems readily available - says it can offer no more than it has provided already. A spokesman at NATO’s military headquarters near Mons in Belgium said some personnel and equipment were offered during the 90-minute meeting, but the officers were sent back to their capitals to ask for more. “They didn’t totally fulfil the requirements. There is still a need for nations to come back with certain offers,” he said, declining to spell out the gaps. (Reuters 031907 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• Romania must not take the ratification of its invitation to join NATO for granted and must press on with reform if it wants to win full membership, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said on Monday in Bucharest. “Don’t take the ratification process for granted. Nineteen parliaments will make the final decision,” Lord Robertson told reporters after meeting Romanian Prime Minister Adrian Nastase. “New rules and regulations must now be enforced, without discrimination or special privileges,” he said. “We want to see anti-corruption laws enacted.” “Otherwise, democracy will be undermined and Romania’s credibility as a future NATO member affected,” he added. (Reuters 031915 GMT Mar 03)
  
  
• NATO allies finalized plans on Monday to extend patrols in the Mediterranean that were set up as an anti-terrorist measure after the 2001 attacks on the United States. Under the agreement, NATO naval patrols will cover the whole of the Mediterranean up to the Strait of Gibraltar instead of being limited to the eastern part of the sea, NATO officials said in Brussels. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns welcomed the “important decision,” saying it “strengthens NATO’s counter-terrorism capability and demonstrates NATO’s firm commitment to meeting the threat of terrorism from wherever it may come.” (AP 031849 Mar 03)
  

BALKANS 

• Kosovo’s top UN official sent a letter to Serbia’s leadership on Monday, inviting a Serbian ministerial delegation for talks on practical issues affecting Kosovo and Serbia, but excluded any discussion on the province’s status. Michael Steiner, the chief UN administrator for Kosovo, proposed that a meeting be held next week in Pristina. The invitation was sent to Serbia’s Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Nebojsa Covic, the Serb government official in charge of the province. (AP 031716 Mar 03)