DUTCH POSITION ON POSSIBLE NATO ROLE IN IRAQ

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 001587 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/24/2014 TAGS: PREL MARR IZ NL NATO SUBJECT: DUTCH POSITION ON POSSIBLE NATO ROLE IN IRAQ REF: A. BRADTKE-RUSSEL/DECKER/HILLAS EMAIL 06/23/04 ¶B. USNATO 602 Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION DANIEL R. RUSSEL F OR REASONS 1.5 (B AND D) (C) DCM met with Dutch MFA Deputy Political Director Herman Schaper on June 24 to discuss Dutch views on a possible NATO role in Iraq further to refs A and B. To provide context, Schaper said that when FM Bot had taken over from Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in January he had been inclined towards caution concerning NATO involvement in Iraq. Nevertheless, the Dutch PermRep to NATO had continued to express this caution "a bit longer than necessary," and that while he initially done so on instructions, he was not doing so now. Schaper said the GONL had no problem with the current text for a political statement on Iraq as proposed by NATO SYG. He noted that FM Bot had told Parliament on June 22 that he was trying to get France and Germany more involved in Iraq through NATO. Concerning training, Schaper termed the present proposal "a good one," observing that the Netherlands' exit strategy for its own deployment in Iraq was based on developing adequate Iraqi security forces. He said this goal had also been discussed in the EU context. He did express caution about pursuing "unreachable objectives" like deploying the ARRC to Iraq. Schaper was amenable to the idea of tasking the NAC to develop options for future NATO roles in Iraq. Overall, Schaper acknowledged there had been a danger of miscommunication about the Dutch position on NATO's role in Iraq and said that "it was being taken care of." SOBEL