Struck: ‘no role for NATO in Iraq’

5 December 2003

PRISTINA – German Defence Minister Peter Struck said Friday in Pristina that he was opposed to NATO forces in Iraq, while NATO and Germany would remain in Kosovo until their presence becomes unnecessary.

“I do not see any role for NATO in Iraq,” Struck, on a Balkans tour, said in the Kosovo capital.

The NATO-led peacekeeping force (KFOR) and the German contingent within it would however remain in the volatile Kosovo “as long as it is needed”, he said.

In his words, KFOR has contributed to peace in Kosovo since it arrived in 1999, though tensions between the majority Albanians and minority Serbs remained in the province.

During the afternoon, Struck was due to visit German troops stationed in the southern city of Prizren. On Saturday he would visit Bosnia, where NATO also leads a peacekeeping stabilization force.

Struck has already visited Albania on Thursday.

DPA
Subject: German news