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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Iraq’s Allawi Requests NATO Military Training Help |
| 2004-06-23 |
| The prospect of a NATO role in Iraq grew on Wednesday when Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi formally asked the alliance to help train his country’s fledgling security forces. Such a task would fall far short of Washington’s original hope -- thwarted by opposition from France and Germany -- that the 26-nation alliance would take command of a multinational stabilization force in central Iraq. But France has said it would consider any request from Allawi’s interim government, due to run Iraq after the U.S.-led occupation formally ends on June 30. France and Germany have made clear, however, they would not deploy troops of their own. A NATO official, declining to be named, said Allawi made his request in a letter to NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer that also called for "other technical assistance," though the nature and timing of this was not spelt out. "The next step is to consult with nations," the official said, adding a decision on how to respond would not be taken by the 26-nation alliance before its summit in Istanbul next Monday and Tuesday. President Bush said at a Group of Eight summit earlier this month that NATO ought to be involved in Iraq, but was contradicted by French President Jacques Chirac. De Hoop Scheffer, seizing on Chirac’s stated willingness to consider a role if Iraqis made a request, said last week NATO would not "slam the door in the face" of Allawi’s government. So far NATO has limited itself to providing logistical support for a Polish-led multinational division in south-central Iraq as part of U.S.-led forces, though 16 of the 26 alliance’s member states have troops in the country. "Training of Iraqi security forces is the likely option for NATO to start in Iraq -- and some say that’s where it will end," said one alliance diplomat, also declining to be identified. French and German resistance to a collective mission for NATO has hardened in the past few weeks because of unrelenting violence in Iraq and a prisoner abuse scandal involving U.S. troops. Diplomats say dismay over Bush’s perceived support for Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians had made some European nations even less inclined to help Washington carry some of the military burden in Iraq. Washington has lowered its ambitions for the alliance’s role in Iraq, partly because it believes the presence of NATO-led troops could complicate the chain of command but also because many of its European allies are militarily overstretched. "Let’s not think there is a huge body of troops waiting in NATO just to be asked to come to Iraq," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in an interview earlier this month. One European diplomat, asking not to be named, said it was not clear what NATO could offer Allawi since it had no previous experience, as a collective organization, of training armed forces from a non-member. The interim government has said it plans to restructure Iraq’s security forces, fashioning the existing Civil Defense Corps into a national guard. The nascent army would also back police units dedicated to fighting guerrillas and preventing sabotage attacks on vital oil pipelines, while border and coastal police would be beefed up to keep foreign fighters out. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #2 Allawi is putting pressure on NATO to cough up support. They can stonewall the US but will find it more embarassing to do so to the Iraqis themselves - heh. |
| Posted by: rkb 2004-06-23 4:03:03 PM |
| #1 Club NATO is on the case, children. Keep your fingers on your cheese and your eyes on your white sheets. The Chirac unit is comin' to town. Eeez large and en charge. |
| Posted by: Zpaz 2004-06-23 3:27:42 PM |