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It
should not be taken for granted that there would be a war against
Iraq: Robertson
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BRUSSELS,
November 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The threat of war on
Iraq will cast a long cloud over a NATO summit this week, which
officials hope will trumpet allied unity against Baghdad despite clear
differences of view between America and Europe.
While
the Prague summit of the Western military alliance could provide a
perfect chance for U.S. President George W. Bush to drum up European
backing, officials are playing down the prospects of talk of military
action, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday, November 17.
“There
should be an expression of allied unity at the Prague summit,” said
a senior NATO official, ahead of the summit on Thursday and Friday,
November 21-22.
But
he added: “I wouldn’t lead you to believe that next week there
will be efforts to put together a military coalition, because we are
on a diplomatic track.”
The
crisis over Iraq is expected to force its way onto the agenda of the
19-member bloc, which will notably discuss setting up a rapid response
force, as well as a specialist anti-terror reaction unit.
The
NATO summit comes at a crucial time in the Iraq crisis: three days
after the first U.N. inspectors's arrival in Baghdad on Monday,
November 18, following Iraq’s unconditional agreement to U.N.
Security Council resolution 1441.
NATO
chief George Robertson said it should not be taken for granted that
there would be a war against Iraq in an interview published Sunday in
the Madrid daily newspaper, El Mundo.
He
said the countdown had started since the United Nations resolution on
disarming Iraq had been approved by the Security Council, but the
inspectors were now on their way to Iraq and it was possible that
there would not be a war.
Last
week’s U.N. Security Council resolution, setting a tight deadline
for Baghdad to accept weapons inspections, was hammered out only after
weeks of tough negotiations between the U.S. and its European allies,
notably France.
But
as the summit approaches, it seems clear that the United States, whose
military threats are opposed notably by E.U. heavyweight Germany,
would like to stick to reaffirming diplomatic solidarity.
“It
would be unlikely that NATO would formally be involved,” British
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a parliamentary committee last week.
Above
all the U.S. will be hoping that Germany, the E.U.’s biggest state
and a key NATO ally, doesn’t repeat too publicly its opposition to
military action in Iraq.
Meanwhile,
Robertson, who has dubbed Prague the “transformation summit”, is
battling to re-invent NATO as a key force in the new global war on
terrorism.
The
day after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, NATO
for the first time invoked its “Article Five” declaring the
atrocities to be an attack on the entire alliance.
But
NATO has been accused of drifting into irrelevance, notably after it
was sidelined in the international force in Afghanistan, the first
U.S.-led response to the September 11 attacks.
With
Washington’s second battle looming against Iraq, NATO is keen to
play its part.
A
key initiative to be agreed at Prague is a U.S.-proposed rapid
response force, comprising 21,000 combat-ready troops who can be
deployed anywhere in the world within days.
Some
commentators say the force would be an ideal tool for the war looming
in Iraq.
But
apparently the force wouldn’t be ready in time, even if there were
the political will to deploy it.
“Even
if we move at warp speed, it’s going to take many months to
establish,” said one official.
