"Alliance solidarity has prevailed," NATO
Secretary-General Lord Robertson said. "We have been able collectively to
overcome the impasse."
After France was shut out of the room, two other holdouts � Germany and
Belgium � dropped their objections to starting the planning for Turkey's
defense immediately, NATO officials said.
Belgium insisted at the last minute on linking any eventual NATO
deployment to developments at the U.N. Security Council.
But the final statement says: "We continue to support efforts in the
United Nations (news
- web
sites) to find a peaceful solution to the crisis."
NATO diplomats said the United States and other allies objected in
principle to tying alliance decision-making to any other organization.
For the past month, Belgium, France and Germany blocked a NATO decision
to begin planning to help defend Turkey � the only NATO ally bordering
Iraq � against any potential reprisals for a U.S. attack. They argued that
such a move was premature and would undermine U.N. efforts to avoid a war.
NATO, trying to end the stalemate, put the issue Sunday to its Defense
Planning Committee, which excludes France. Paris left NATO's military
command structure in the late 1960s and participates only in political
consultations.
The committee was used ahead of the 1991 war against Iraq to approve
aid for Turkey. But NATO has sought to limit its use since the end of the
Cold War in a spirit of rapprochement with Paris.
Some progress was made after "very intensive negotiations," a NATO
official said, adding that the idea of starting planning was now
"uncontested."
The United States proposed a month ago that the alliance consider
sending early-warning AWACS aircraft, missile defenses and
anti-biochemical units to Turkey.
But after France, Germany and Belgium blocked that planning for three
weeks, Turkey on Feb. 10 invoked NATO's mutual defense treaty, which binds
the allies to talks when one feels threatened.
Turkey feels especially vulnerable, especially as it considers allowing
tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers to use Turkish facilities for a
possible war on Iraq.
The United States and its allies say denying support for Turkey's
defense erodes the alliance's credibility and sends the wrong signal to
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news
- web
sites).
Some of the measures can be done bilaterally � Germany has already
agreed to send Patriot missiles to Turkey via the Netherlands � but those
missiles need to be linked to NATO radar networks to be effective.
Germany and other countries also have promised AWACS crews, but the
planes themselves are NATO assets.
The monthlong dispute has driven a deep wedge into the 53-year-old
alliance.
It also has exacerbated tensions within Europe ahead of Monday's
emergency summit of 15 European Union (news
- web
sites) leaders, who are trying to reconcile their own differing
policies on Iraq.
Britain, Spain, Denmark and Italy have backed President Bush (news
- web
sites), while France and Germany have tried to slow what they view as
his rush to war.
