Germany, Two Other Countries Block NATO Planning On Turkey

A gaping fissure worked its way Monday through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the collective defense alliance that withstood four decades of Cold War but seems to cracking over a potential U.S.-led war against Iraq.

"I am not seeking today to minimize the seriousness of the situation. It is serious," NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said.

The issue facing the alliance's 19 members was whether they should begin planning to support Turkey if the United States attacked Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the Iraqis decided to launch a counterstrike against their neighbor. In response, Germany, France and Belgium veteoed the matter and plunged the alliance into a crisis.

Turkey quickly replied to the veto by asking the alliance to reconsider the issue, the Turkish television station NTV reported. The Turkish government plans to cite an article in the North Atlantic Treaty that established the alliance in 1949 as justification for the review. "The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened," the article says. The issue was expected to be debated Monday.

Dispute simmers within alliance

The veto by Germany, France and Belgium had been building for weeks. Because of the dispute, the alliance decided on Thursday to put off a decision in hopes of reaching agreement, and Robertson applied the alliance's "silent procedure" to the matter. Under this system, the 19 alliance members had until 10 a.m. Monday to file a veto. Otherwise, their silence would be interpreted by Robertson as agreement.

At the time of Thursday's decision, Robertson described the dispute this way: "Where there has been a disagreement is over when to formally task this military planning. Not whether to plan but when to plan."

Robertson did not have to wait until Monday to get an idea of the direction that the issue was taking. On Sunday, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said his country would file a veto and France said it might do so as well.

The issue has been simmering within the alliance since mid-January when the United States asked its other 18 NATO allies for assistance. The United States wants Turkey to receive three forms of help: Airborne warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft to provide surveillance, Patriot missiles to provide air defense and special forces to combat biological and chemical weapons.

Schröder faces touchy question

The issue is particularly sensitive for German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder because he has said Germany would not fight any war against Iraq and would vote against any resolution that is presented in the U.N. Security Council to authorize such a war. But Germans serve in the surveillance planes, and if the alliance provided the planes to Turkey, Schröder would have to decide whether they remain on board. If they were pulled out, the alliance would have a difficult time carrying out the mission.

The issue is also sensitive to the United States. At a security conference held in Munich over the weekend, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said a potential veto could endanger the alliance. "I can’t imagine doing that. It is beyond my comprehension. ... Turkey is an ally, the North Atlantic Treaty provides for this. Turkey is a member of the alliance. To prevent defensive capabilities – just the planning, not even deployment – I think that is inexcusable," Rumsfeld said Saturday.

The U.S. ambassador to NATO expressed similar sentiments on Monday. "This is a most unfortunate decision," Ambassador Nicolas Burns said. "Because of their actions, NATO is now facing a crisis of credibility."

Belgium, however, said the automatic start of military planning would force the crisis into a "logic of war" when diplomatic alternatives still stood a chance of success. "It would signify that we have already entered into the logic of war, that ... any chance, any initiative to still resolve the conflict in a peaceful way was gone," Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said.

Countries try to defuse dispute

Both Turkey and Germany sought to play down the significance of the decision.

Turkey's foreign minister ,Yasar Yakis said in Ankara: "There was no veto on defending Turkey. There is disagreement over the timing" but not on the principle of defending Turkey. "These problems can be overcome."

In Berlin, Schröder's spokesman said the veto did not present any sort of "fundamental danger" to NATO. The alliance "has experienced and survived many such cases, and that will also be the case here," said the spokesman, Bela Anda.

A spokesman for the German Defense Ministry also said that Germany would be sending Patriot missiles to the Netherlands and that the Dutch would ship the missiles to Turkey.

U.S. weighs military cuts in Europe

The dispute within the alliance comes amid a discussion among U.S. military leaders on a radical change in its military presence in Europe, the Washington Post reported on Monday. In interviews, members of the U.S. delegation that attended an annual security conference in Munich told the newspaper of plans being contemplated by Marine Gen. James Jones, the new U.S. commander in Europe. The delegates said they expected a permanent U.S. military presence eventually to be cut from the current level of about 100,000 personnel, most of them Army.

The delegates also told The Post that Jones and other top Defense Department officials were contemplating something like the U.S. presence in Kuwait, where military equipment is stored and then used by troops who fly in to exercise or deploy with it.