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Another NATO Meeting to Begin Shortly

Aired February 11, 2003 - 10:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, the issue of Iraq and how best to deal with it has deeply divided the NATO military alliance of late. At the bottom of the hour, its members are going to get together and gather in a second day of emergency meetings. At issue in these meetings, U.S. efforts to formulate defense plans for Turkey in the event of an Iraqi war.
CNN's Matthew Chance is covering these negotiations, and he checks in now for us as you see there at the NATO headquarters there in Brussels, Belgium -- hello, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. And that's right, NATO officials are preparing for an emergency session of the North Atlantic council, the main decision-making body of the NATO alliance here at the headquarters to try and find a solution to a dispute which even NATO officials are saying cuts to the core of the NATO alliance, and is causing the alliance a loss of credibility.

France, Belgium, Germany are still at odds with the 16 other members of the NATO alliance, including the United States and Britain, over what to do about Turkey. Turkey has asked the alliance, of which it is a member, with borders with Iraq. It has asked the alliance to provide support to help it bolster its defenses ahead of any possible war with Iraq.

France, though, backed by Germany and Belgium, is saying that the timing is not right for that. It might send a message, they say, that the decision has already been taken on going to war with Iraq. France also says it wants to give diplomatic efforts at the U.N. more time to work out a peaceful solution to the crisis with Iraq.

That position, of course, has been drawing scorn from the other NATO members, including the U.S. Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, calling it "shameful" that NATO allies are taking this kind of stance towards another.

The United States has said that it will press ahead with or without NATO, and provide Turkey the support it needs. It hopes that NATO will come through, but if it doesn't -- of course, it does go ahead with Turkey without NATO, and that could have big implications for the future of this Atlantic alliance.

HARRIS: Matthew, any way to tell what's going on behind the scenes there with this 16-3 split there among the nations of NATO? As you just said, there is no real thinking at this particular point that Turkey is going to be going unprotected, that the U.S. will do it somehow, some way. It is going to happen there, but what exactly is going on behind the scenes there to at least get Belgium and Germany and France on board here?

CHANCE: Well, there is no question, as you mentioned, that Turkey will get the kind of protection, the kind of support it needs, if not from NATO, then from the United States and other countries willing to offer that support. But there are these very intensive negotiations that have been conducted throughout the day here, throughout the past couple of days, to try and forge some kind of consensus, some sort of compromise that would essentially get the French, the Belgians, and the Germans to step back from their position, vetoing this provision of support to Turkey at this stage, and enable the NATO alliance to keep, in the words of one NATO official, to keep its relevancy to the modern world, the world here we're living in.

HARRIS: All right. Still waiting to see just how big this rift is going to get, and if it will get healed soon. Thanks, Matthew. Matthew Chance reporting live for us from NATO headquarters in Brussels.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 11, 2003 - 10:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, the issue of Iraq and how best to deal with it has deeply divided the NATO military alliance of late. At the bottom of the hour, its members are going to get together and gather in a second day of emergency meetings. At issue in these meetings, U.S. efforts to formulate defense plans for Turkey in the event of an Iraqi war.
CNN's Matthew Chance is covering these negotiations, and he checks in now for us as you see there at the NATO headquarters there in Brussels, Belgium -- hello, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. And that's right, NATO officials are preparing for an emergency session of the North Atlantic council, the main decision-making body of the NATO alliance here at the headquarters to try and find a solution to a dispute which even NATO officials are saying cuts to the core of the NATO alliance, and is causing the alliance a loss of credibility.

France, Belgium, Germany are still at odds with the 16 other members of the NATO alliance, including the United States and Britain, over what to do about Turkey. Turkey has asked the alliance, of which it is a member, with borders with Iraq. It has asked the alliance to provide support to help it bolster its defenses ahead of any possible war with Iraq.

France, though, backed by Germany and Belgium, is saying that the timing is not right for that. It might send a message, they say, that the decision has already been taken on going to war with Iraq. France also says it wants to give diplomatic efforts at the U.N. more time to work out a peaceful solution to the crisis with Iraq.

That position, of course, has been drawing scorn from the other NATO members, including the U.S. Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, calling it "shameful" that NATO allies are taking this kind of stance towards another.

The United States has said that it will press ahead with or without NATO, and provide Turkey the support it needs. It hopes that NATO will come through, but if it doesn't -- of course, it does go ahead with Turkey without NATO, and that could have big implications for the future of this Atlantic alliance.

HARRIS: Matthew, any way to tell what's going on behind the scenes there with this 16-3 split there among the nations of NATO? As you just said, there is no real thinking at this particular point that Turkey is going to be going unprotected, that the U.S. will do it somehow, some way. It is going to happen there, but what exactly is going on behind the scenes there to at least get Belgium and Germany and France on board here?

CHANCE: Well, there is no question, as you mentioned, that Turkey will get the kind of protection, the kind of support it needs, if not from NATO, then from the United States and other countries willing to offer that support. But there are these very intensive negotiations that have been conducted throughout the day here, throughout the past couple of days, to try and forge some kind of consensus, some sort of compromise that would essentially get the French, the Belgians, and the Germans to step back from their position, vetoing this provision of support to Turkey at this stage, and enable the NATO alliance to keep, in the words of one NATO official, to keep its relevancy to the modern world, the world here we're living in.

HARRIS: All right. Still waiting to see just how big this rift is going to get, and if it will get healed soon. Thanks, Matthew. Matthew Chance reporting live for us from NATO headquarters in Brussels.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com