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Solution hope for NATO crisis
BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- Germany is confident the crisis facing NATO will be solved once the chief weapons inspectors in Iraq report to the United Nations on Friday. Emergency talks at NATO headquarters -- over how to break the impasse on when to start making plans to protect Turkey should there be war against Iraq -- were postponed on Thursday. German Defence Minister Peter Struck told the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, that NATO would break the deadlock over Turkey by Saturday, after arms inspectors report back to the United Nations. "We will reach a decision in the NATO council at the latest on Saturday after the sitting of the Security Council which absolutely corresponds to the interests of Turkey," Struck said. On Monday, Germany, France and Belgium rejected U.S.-led efforts to begin making contingency plans immediately, saying it would indicate war was inevitable. But their stand threw NATO into crisis. Turkey is the only Muslim NATO nation and the only alliance member to share a border with Iraq. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told the Bundestag on Thursday that a peaceful resolution of the Iraq crisis was still possible. (Full story) "Together with France, Russia and other partners the government is doing all it can for a peaceful resolution," he said. U.S. lawmakers have blasted the three NATO members for opposing the plan. Turkey has agreed to allow the United States to upgrade its bases and ports for possible use in military action against Iraq. Turkey's parliament is to vote on Tuesday whether to let U.S. troops use the bases. U.S. officials say that failing to help defend Turkey from a possible attack by Iraq would violate NATO's overriding principle that an attack on one is an attack on all, and that failure to uphold it threatens the alliance. The United States has made clear that it will take steps to defend Turkey with or without NATO backing but would prefer the full power of NATO. French President Jacques Chirac and Schroeder have both said they would honor their promise to NATO obligations in the case of a war with Iraq. "The issue here is not whether, it is when, that has not changed, it is still a timing issue," NATO spokesman Yves Brodeur said. "They still feel that the time is not right for NATO to make a decision." Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and his fellow inspection chief IAEA Executive Director Mohamed ElBaradei will report in New York on Friday about the status of their work in Iraq. In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said he intends to press France and Germany at the briefing about whether they are opposing war with Iraq in order to get President Saddam Hussein "off the hook." Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis is set to hold talks in Washington in an emergency meeting with U.S. officials. Yakis played down the NATO rift. "This is not a question of whether or not NATO will support Turkey in a war," Yakis told reporters. NATO has weathered storms of disagreement in the past over issues such as Kosovo, the Vietnam War and Pershing missiles in Europe, but NATO diplomats say this crisis -- with a potential to sour trans-Atlantic relations -- is one of the worst the alliance has experienced. -- CNN Correspondents Matthew Chance and James Martone contributed to this report.
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