Schröder to Reiterate No Troop Pledge at NATO Iraq Summit

On Sunday, the 26 NATO heads of state and government attended a formal dinner in an Ottoman-era palace on the banks of the Bosporus to thrash out an agreement on a NATO role in training military and police forces for the future sovereign Iraqi government.

Differences however remained over when, and especially where, the training is to take place. The dispute has given German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder another opportunity to stress that no German soldier will set a foot on Iraqi soil.

Shortly before official talks began in Istanbul on Monday, the German chancellor expressed his support for attempts to bring stability and democracy to Iraq. Speaking to journalists in Berlin before boarding a plan to Istanbul on Sunday, Gerhard Schröder said the transatlantic row over the Iraq war belonged in the history books and that all NATO states were interested in improving security in Iraq. At the same time, however, he expressed his determination not to budge on his refusal to send troops to the war-torn country.

Training must take place in Germany - Chancellor

"We are of course willing to participate in the training of Iraqi troops if the Iraqi government wants that," he says. "But this has to take place in training centers in Germany because we stick to our position that no German troops will be sent to Iraq. In Istanbul I will once again make that clear."

Sixteen NATO members have forces in Iraq, but key members, including Germany and France, have so far resisted pressure from Washington to participate. They have also thwarted the Bush administration’s original hope of a NATO-led force to take command of a peacekeeping force south of Baghdad. Schröder’s resistance against a German troop deployment is fully backed by his junior coalition partner in the government – the Greens. Greens Party leader Angelika Beer believes that NATO members won’t agree to the alliance's direct participation on the ground in Iraq.

Greens doubt European support for NATO role

"I expect there will be an agreement on military training but outside Iraq," she said. "There won’t be support for a NATO role inside the country so that the controversy may linger on. The European member states will make it clear again that humanitarian and training assistance is all they are willing to provide. After all the conflicts in the entire Middle East are still waiting for an answer from NATO."

The wrangling over military and police training echoes NATO divisions before the Iraq war when France and Germany blocked military assistance of the alliance to Turkey, Iraq’s neighbor. And senior leaders of Iraq’s interim government have expressed their dissatisfaction about the rift.

Hoshyar Zebari, foreign minister in the Iraqi government which formally assumes sovereignty on Wednesday, insisted that any training must take place inside the country to be adaptable to Iraqi conditions.