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To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (228373)	3/16/2003 3:37:05 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 436258

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel indicated that his country will not give transit rights for US troops to be deployed in a war against Iraq. This seems to me almost as a declaration of war against the US ..... and some more ........ FRENCH "FIG-LEAF" A French NATO mission spokesman said there would be a meeting of the alliance's 19 ambassadors after the defense committee session, though only for a political statement. He said this meeting would "allow for a reaffirmation of the fact that the allies are ready, of course, to meet their obligations to Turkey according to the (NATO) treaty." But, in a sign of continued rancor over the veto wielded by France, Germany and Belgium, a senior diplomat from one of the 16-strong majority said he would not back a "fig-leaf" political statement on solidarity with Turkey for Paris to stand behind. "I for one am not going to be party to some sort of framework shell of a...decision sheet which purports to show solidarity when actually the people who are drafting it have done everything in the last four weeks that demonstrates their claim to solidarity is totally empty," he said. He also took a swipe at Belgium. "What's incomprehensible is that the alliance's obligation, the extent to which we can support each other, somehow becomes subject to the whims of individual politicians parading around Brussels yesterday," he said. The dissenting European allies had insisted it was premature for NATO to take any measures that would imply acceptance of military action against Iraq while U.N. weapons inspectors were still trying to disarm the country peacefully. But U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns warned last week that the alliance's credibility was in serious jeopardy.