By Reid Mitenbuler
Inside Defense, 05 August 2004
NATO will establish a “Training Implementation Mission” in Iraq this month, acting on a decision made during the alliance’s June Istanbul Summit.
The mission will work with the Iraqi interim government and multinational forces to “help the Iraqi authorities establish their own defense reform priorities,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said during a July 30 press briefing.
“I’ll propose these arrangements with the Iraqi interim authorities and I have every reason to believe they will be accepted,” he continued.
The mission will define NATO’s role in Iraq and determine training needs for Iraqi security forces, a NATO official told Inside the Pentagon Aug. 4.
However, it is “not a fact-finding mission which is going in. It is the nucleus of the enlarged training mission,” de Hoop Scheffer said, adding that 40 mission officers will initially be sent.
The mission will also establish liaison arrangements between Iraq’s interim government and multinational forces, as well as work with the groups to develop detailed proposals for further training, advice and cooperation.
The mission will submit its proposals in a report to the North Atlantic Council by Sept. 15. The council is NATO’s supreme political body.
The report will suggest appropriate mission size and recommend where to do particular kinds of training, either in Iraq or at NATO training facilities in other countries, the NATO official said.
Iraqi personnel trained outside of Iraq will “play a role in coordinating national offers of equipment and training,” de Hoop Scheffer said.
Mission efforts also will include training Iraqi personnel to develop oversight structures such as the ministry of defense and military headquarters, the statement said.
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Citation: Reid Mitenbuler. “NATO Details Plan to Establish Training Implementation Mission in Iraq,” Inside Defense, 05 August 2004.
Original URL: http://www.insidedefense.com/secure/defense_docnum.asp?f=defense_2002.ask&docnum=PENTAGON-20-32-10
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