France and Belgium, two of the most vocal critics of the U.S. war in Iraq, would not agree Friday to a planned expansion of NATO's military training mission in Iraq, but officials were confident that a deal could be reached within coming days. The two nations expressed concern over several aspects of the planned mission, including how to pay for it, where to hold it and how to protect it. "As things stand now, not all 26 allies are completely happy," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on the sidelines of a European Union defense ministers meeting. However, de Hoop Scheffer said he was "really optimistic that we can reach agreement very soon on the remaining points." He scheduled a Monday meeting of NATO envoys at alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
De Hoop Scheffer said one difference concerned financing the mission, which would involve deploying up to 300 NATO instructors to establish a training center for Iraqi officers. Other unresolved issues include details of the training mission's relationship with the U.S. plan to rebuild a 260,000-strong Iraqi army and the question of whether NATO or U.S.-led coalition forces would protect the instructors. Speaking to reporters at the EU meeting, France's defense minister restated Paris' doubts about training Iraqis in Iraq. "We in France continue to believe that this training should be done outside Iraq," Michele Alliot-Marie said. "Iraq has to find its own sense of identity and I don't think the addition of more foreigners in uniform will help that." Diplomats said French concerns focused on whether U.S. Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, who commands the American training operation in Iraq, also could head the NATO mission under a "double-hat" arrangement allowing him to report back to alliance headquarters. French diplomats last week expressed concern about the alliance operation becoming "subservient" to the U.S.-led coalition. |