BELGIUM: UNITED STATES URGES NATO TO CONSIDER A MORE PROMINENT ROLE IN POSTWAR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

Record ID: 337925

  • Title: BELGIUM: UNITED STATES URGES NATO TO CONSIDER A MORE PROMINENT ROLE IN POSTWAR IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
  • Date: 6th December 2003
  • Summary: (EU) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (DECEMBER 4, 2003) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR AND FLAGS AT NATO HEADQUARTERS ENTRANCE IN BRUSSELS; MV NATO'S SECRETARY-GENERAL LORD GEORGE ROBERTSON, ARRIVING 0.18 2. MV U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, COLIN POWELL, ARRIVING 0.28 3. MV FRENCH FOREIGN MINISTER, DOMINIQUE DE VILLEPIN, WALKING IN; SLV NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL MEET
  • Embargoed: 21st December 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM
  • Country: Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVA6FXD95SNCXQ2TP5QM4OERKLB3
  • Story Text: The United States urges NATO to consider a more
    prominent role in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The United States urged NATO on Thursday (December
    4, 2003) to consider a more prominent role in post-war Iraq but
    its overture was soured by a row over European Union
    ambitions to set up a military planning cell independent of
    the alliance. It was the first time since the U.S.-led war
    over which NATO was plunged into one of the deepest
    crises in its 54-year history, that Washington had openly
    pressed for alliance help in a country where its own costs
    and casualties are mounting.

    NATO currently provides behind-the-scenes support to a
    23-nation division of troops, led by Poland in a swathe of
    south-central Iraq, and 18 of the 26 current and future
    members of the alliance have a military presence in the
    country.

    Diplomats say that until now, Washington had been
    careful not to force the debate on a more direct NATO
    involvement for fear of risking another bust-up with its
    allies. France and Germany, Europe's fiercest critics of
    the war, had made it plain that they would insist on a
    heftier role for the United Nations, an invitation from a
    legitimate Iraqi body and a role independent of the
    U.S.-British occupying authority as their price for NATO
    involvement. But with the prospect of a handover of
    sovereignty to Iraqis next year, there has been more talk
    of a robust role for NATO.

    Earlier this week Spain proposed that NATO take command
    of the Polish-led division, and diplomats said Italy was
    also favourable to the idea.

    Before the ministerial conference got under way, Turkey
    offered three helicopters for NATO's peacekeeping force in
    Afghanistan, filling a gap that had begun to undermine the
    credibility of plans to expand the mission beyond Kabul.

    At a media conference, NATO's Secretary-General, George
    Robertson, said that the alliance was not yet at a stage
    where anyone had tabled a proposal on an increased role in
    Iraq. "But nobody has excluded NATO doing more in Iraq if
    the time is right and the circumstances are right as well.

    And those circumstances might involve a different UN
    environment, they might also involve a different view of
    what was happening on the ground and the desire of
    individual countries to do something with NATO support. But
    at the present moment, NATO is focusing on Afghanistan," he
    said.

    Also speaking to the world's media, Powell
    acknowledged that NATO had a lot on its plate.

    "NATO is busy, has a lot of things going on, 18 of its
    26 member states or states-to-be have troops in Iraq. We
    are focusing on setting up an expanded mission in
    Afghanistan, so let's not lose sight of that particular
    vital mission. And at the same time, let's begin examining
    what we might be able to do in Iraq beyond support of the
    Polish division," he said.


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