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CNN Live Sunday
NATO Decides to Defend Turkey in Case of War With Iraq
Aired February 16, 2003 - 18:00 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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening. I'm Carol Lin at the CNN Center.
You are looking at videotape out of Brussels, Belgium just in to the CNN Center. There you see Lord George Robertson, the secretary general of NATO, as he is about to address the press corps with a very important announcement.
If there is a war with Iraq, NATO ministers have already started planning for the defense of Turkey. This decision being made without France, because France is having no part of it. Belgium insists any NATO deployment of troops to fortify Turkey should be linked to decisions reached by the United Nations Security Council. Turkey is the only NATO ally which borders Iraq.
And right now we want to go directly back to Robin Oakley. He is CNN's senior European correspondent. He's been monitoring events in Brussels, Belgium and joins us by telephone once again -- Robin, for the audience who is just joining us here at the top of the hour, an important decision by Germany and Belgium to drop their objections to this plan.
How is it that Lord Robertson was able to garner support now from 18 out of the 19 allies? And what was France's response to all this?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SR. EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically he's been able to get the support because they took the decision out of the full NATO Northern Atlantic Council of 19 countries, including France, left the decision, instead, to the defense planning committee, on which France isn't represented, just 18 countries. So that left two holdout countries of those who have been opposing the idea of giving aid to Turkey, Germany and Belgium.
The Germans came round fairly early in the day today. But the Belgians held out for a long time and angered many other NATO ambassadors because some felt that they were doing it for internal political reasons, for coalition building ahead of an election in May.
But the crucial thing is that Turkey now will get Patriot anti- missile batteries, AWACs planes and chemical and biological warfare protection units. And the planning for that will begin now within days -- Carol.
LIN: But, again, what did France have to say about this? Even though they are officially not part of the defense planning committee, clearly this has to be a slap in the face to them. OAKLEY: Well, as Lord Robertson said, France has got its own position on these questions. France, this has only been possible because France was kept out of the decision. France has argued that NATO shouldn't be taking a decision like this at this stage because it implies that there will be military action against Saddam Hussein and France still wants the work of the U.N. inspectors to go on and for the crisis to be solved by political and diplomatic means.
What this diplomatic stratagem, as it were, has done is to keep France clear of the decision. This is a decision taken by the other 18 NATO countries. It will still bind NATO as an organization, but it keeps the French clear of that decision and able to continue arguing their case for the work of the U.N. inspectors to go on in Iraq as the way of solving the crisis -- Carol.
LIN: All right, thank you very much.
Robin Oakley reporting in from Brussels, Belgium tonight, live by telephone with this breaking news.
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 16, 2003 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening. I'm Carol Lin at the CNN Center.
You are looking at videotape out of Brussels, Belgium just in to the CNN Center. There you see Lord George Robertson, the secretary general of NATO, as he is about to address the press corps with a very important announcement.
If there is a war with Iraq, NATO ministers have already started planning for the defense of Turkey. This decision being made without France, because France is having no part of it. Belgium insists any NATO deployment of troops to fortify Turkey should be linked to decisions reached by the United Nations Security Council. Turkey is the only NATO ally which borders Iraq.
And right now we want to go directly back to Robin Oakley. He is CNN's senior European correspondent. He's been monitoring events in Brussels, Belgium and joins us by telephone once again -- Robin, for the audience who is just joining us here at the top of the hour, an important decision by Germany and Belgium to drop their objections to this plan.
How is it that Lord Robertson was able to garner support now from 18 out of the 19 allies? And what was France's response to all this?
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN SR. EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically he's been able to get the support because they took the decision out of the full NATO Northern Atlantic Council of 19 countries, including France, left the decision, instead, to the defense planning committee, on which France isn't represented, just 18 countries. So that left two holdout countries of those who have been opposing the idea of giving aid to Turkey, Germany and Belgium.
The Germans came round fairly early in the day today. But the Belgians held out for a long time and angered many other NATO ambassadors because some felt that they were doing it for internal political reasons, for coalition building ahead of an election in May.
But the crucial thing is that Turkey now will get Patriot anti- missile batteries, AWACs planes and chemical and biological warfare protection units. And the planning for that will begin now within days -- Carol.
LIN: But, again, what did France have to say about this? Even though they are officially not part of the defense planning committee, clearly this has to be a slap in the face to them. OAKLEY: Well, as Lord Robertson said, France has got its own position on these questions. France, this has only been possible because France was kept out of the decision. France has argued that NATO shouldn't be taking a decision like this at this stage because it implies that there will be military action against Saddam Hussein and France still wants the work of the U.N. inspectors to go on and for the crisis to be solved by political and diplomatic means.
What this diplomatic stratagem, as it were, has done is to keep France clear of the decision. This is a decision taken by the other 18 NATO countries. It will still bind NATO as an organization, but it keeps the French clear of that decision and able to continue arguing their case for the work of the U.N. inspectors to go on in Iraq as the way of solving the crisis -- Carol.
LIN: All right, thank you very much.
Robin Oakley reporting in from Brussels, Belgium tonight, live by telephone with this breaking news.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
