Rumsfeld Slams NATO Delay on Support for Turkey
Sat February 8, 2003 07:45 AM ET
By John Chalmers
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Saturday branded as "inexcusable" moves by France, Germany and Belgium to stall NATO planning for the protection of Turkey in the event of a war in Iraq.
Rumsfeld said if a three-week deadlock at NATO is not ended, Washington and other allies will provide defense for Turkey anyway, and NATO's credibility would suffer a severe blow.
"Turkey will not be hurt. The United States and the countries in NATO will go right ahead and do it," he told a security conference in the German city of Munich. "What will be hurt will be NATO, not Turkey."
"Turkey is an ally," he said. "To prevent defensive capabilities -- just the planning, not even deployment -- I think that is inexcusable."
NATO Secretary-General George Robertson on Thursday put the onus on the three dissenters, which have opposed any NATO war preparations as premature, to stop the clock on a decision to launch planning of limited defensive measures for Turkey.
Unless one of the countries objects before 0900 GMT on Monday, military planning will begin automatically.
Speaking in Munich after Rumsfeld, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said Berlin stood by its obligations to its NATO partners but defended not wanting to push forward planning for protecting Turkey.
"We didn't want an extra build-up to be done so to speak before the decisive Security Council meeting," he said. "Otherwise the NATO secretary-general knows we are working hard to bring things forward. We have absolutely no fundamental dissent, not to speak of wanting to undermine anything."
DEEP DIVIDE
Robertson voiced confidence that the 19-nation alliance would adopt the plan early next week to prepare to send Patriot air defense missiles, early warning aircraft and anti-chemical and biological warfare units to Turkey, which borders Iraq.
Actual deployment of the systems would require a further unanimous NATO decision. Turkey would probably be a major launchpad for a U.S.-led attack on Iraq, which military experts say could come as early as next month.
France continued to insist publicly on Friday that NATO should not begin any war preparations and U.N. weapons inspectors should be allowed more time to do their work in Iraq.
Diplomats said they expected intensive talks at the Munich conference, on the sidelines of which Rumsfeld was due to hold talks with German Defense Minister Peter Struck.
But Fischer said he remained unconvinced of the case for a war against Iraq and rejected suggestions by Rumsfeld that Europe was divided on the issue, saying public opinion was firmly anti-war.
"I am not convinced. That is my problem. I cannot go to the public and say these are the reasons because I don't believe in them," he said, switching briefly from German into English.
Robertson's use of the NATO "silence procedure" -- after another bruising North Atlantic Council meeting failed to break the deadlock -- piled pressure on Paris and Berlin.
Diplomats said that if they wanted to climb down, the three dissenters could argue that the decision did not involve war preparations or military deployments but merely planning to help protect a NATO ally in case of need.
However, some said France and Germany were so angered by disparaging comments by Rumsfeld and other influential U.S. officials, and so strongly backed by public opinion, that they might well block the NATO decision.
Rumsfeld sought to play down his recent comment that France and Germany's reticence over war had sidelined them, branding them "old Europe," saying at his age "old" was a term of endearment.
But he urged Berlin and Paris to get on board: "As the old saying goes, if you're in a hole, stop digging."
reuters.com
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As predicted, the crack between U.S. and its major allies in NATO is getting bigger and bigger because the Iraq war issue. |
