Iraq role a possibility, says NATO chief

Date: 19/02/04

NATO's Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has said the Alliance may agree to playing a bigger role in peacekeeping in Iraq if it is asked by a new government in Baghdad.

In his first policy speech in Brussels since assuming his new job six weeks ago, the former Dutch foreign minister said that "Iraq will of course be on the agenda".

But "a NATO mission in Iraq would constitute a big challenge and, although I think the Alliance could rise to the challenge, we have work to do in Afghanistan".

He admitted that the Alliance's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan is a serious credibility test and said his main priority would be to ensure its success.

"Our credibility is on the line," he insisted. "We have no choice but to succeed."

The Dutchman pledged to press ahead with a campaign started by the man he succeeds, Lord George Robertson, to modernize Europe's armed forces.

De Hoop Scheffer, 55, holds the post as the head of the world's biggest military alliance at a turning point in its history.

Last year, NATO - which will soon admit seven new members from central and eastern Europe - left its traditional European area of operations for the first time to carry out a mission in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The mission has since been extended northwards to Kunduz and could be further boosted this year.

"I was in Afghanistan last week and was told that progress is being made, but the message I got from all concerned was that, to succeed, Afghanistan needs more support."

De Hoop Scheffer, who was speaking at an event organized by the Transatlantic Center of the German Marshall Fund, also said that if the EU wants to play a bigger military role in the world, it must spend more on defence.

"I want Europe to take on a strong defence identity but this cannot be achieved unless we have the military resources to do the job."

Report of a speech given in Brussels on 17 February 2004 by Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's Secretary-General.

http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2004/s040217a.htm http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2004/s040217a.htm

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