Belgium, Feb. 10 (UPI) -- NATO members Monday again failed to resolve their differences over how to protect Turkey in case of an attack by Iraq after a day of heated talks at the military alliance's Brussels headquarters.
Speaking to reporters at the end of an emergency meeting of alliance ambassadors, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said: "I don't underestimate the seriousness of the division within the alliance, but that division is still about the timing of the tasking, not whether the tasking will take place."
The former British defense minister added that a presentation by Gen. Harald Kujat, chairman of NATO's military committee, convinced members that Turkey's "concerns are legitimate and the threat is real."
Officials said the North Atlantic Council, the alliance's decision-making body, would meet again Tuesday in an attempt to break the 3-week-old deadlock.
Earlier Monday, the 19-member bloc was plunged into its deepest crisis for decades after France, Germany and Belgium vetoed plans to deploy early-warning aircraft, patriot anti-missile defenses and anti-chemical warfare teams to the alliance's only Muslim state ahead of a possible conflict with Iraq.
Ankara subsequently invoked Article IV of the NATO treaty for the first time in the organization's 54-year history. The clause commits alliance members to consult "when, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened."
The three European states -- which are all opposed to the military build-up in the Gulf -- claim preparing for war could undermine efforts to find a peaceful solution to the stand-off between Washington and Baghdad.
The move met with a furious reaction from senior members of the U.S. administration.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he hoped the alliance would "now realize that they have an obligation to assist a NATO member who asks for help."
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld described the decision by three of NATO's founding members as a "mistake" that left Paris, Berlin and Brussels "isolated" within the 19-member alliance.
"It is unfortunate they (France, Germany and Belgium) are in a state of disagreement with the rest of their NATO allies," he told reporters in Washington after a meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
He said if the three states continued to block NATO plans to help Turkey in the event of Iraqi aggression, the alliance's other 16 members would "form a coalition to provide such assistance."
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns said the alliance faced a "crisis of credibility" after the unprecedented decision by France, Germany and Belgium.
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis attempted to play down the split within the alliance. "These difficulties can be overcome because in fact there is no divergence on the essence of the problem," he said.
The gulf between Europe and the United States over how to deal with Saddam Hussein was underlined Monday when Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou said the Iraqi leader was "beginning to understand the message" conveyed by Europe, the Arab countries and the United Nations.
Speaking after a telephone briefing by chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix, Papandreou said: "It seems that a glimpse of light is finally there."
Greece, which holds the rotating European Union presidency, Monday called for an emergency summit of EU leaders on Feb. 17 to thrash out a common European position on the Iraqi crisis.
upi.com |
