BRUSSELS, 10 December 2004 — US Secretary of State Colin Powell accused European allies of undermining NATO yesterday by refusing to allow staff seconded to the alliance to take part in its military training mission in Iraq. The attack showed a transatlantic rift between Washington and opponents of the Iraq war was not healed, despite pledges by other countries at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers to send more troops to expand its fledgling mission in Baghdad. “When it comes time to perform a mission, it seems to us to be quite awkward for suddenly members of that international staff to say I am unable to go,” he told a news conference. “Your are hurting the credibility and cohesion (of such an) international staff organization,” said Powell on what is likely his last visit to NATO headquarters before handing over to successor Condoleezza Rice.
NATO sources say France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Greece will not send any of their staff serving at the alliance to Iraq. Those countries dismiss US objections, saying they made that point clear when the training mission was agreed last June. “There will be no (French) officers or soldiers in Iraq,” French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier told reporters. “Given the current security situation, we think it is more efficient and useful if training takes place outside of Iraq.”
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed pledges by other countries including Poland, Hungary, Norway and the Netherlands to send more staff to the training mission, located within Baghdad’s international Green Zone. “The number of personnel will go from 60 to 300, including trainers and support staff,” de Hoop Scheffer told reporters.
“I am a very happy man as secretary-general.” NATO sources said the new contributions would take the total of trainers in Iraq to almost 100, with the rest as support staff, and said they should start as soon as possible
The 26-member alliance also aims to set up a military academy on the outskirts of Baghdad with more trainers, but de Hoop Scheffer said that would not be ready before early 2005.
News emerged at the meeting that US President George W. Bush will visit NATO and the European Union on Feb. 22 in a move to rebuild ties at the start of his second term, but the meeting showed that any full reconciliation remains an uphill battle.
Washington is also looking to European allies to help expand coverage of NATO’s 8,500 ISAF peacekeeping force westwards from Kabul and the north, where it is currently operating.
But NATO officials said that despite offers made by several nations ahead of the meeting, they were still not in a position to announce that long-awaited expansion.
