lennart
14-02-03, 16:23
Austria says won't let U.S. troops cross Alps
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By Marcus Kabel
VIENNA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Neutral Austria said on Friday it had refused to let the United States redeploy troops from Germany to Italy across the Austrian Alps, the fastest route, and voiced surprise at criticism from Washington.
Austria, a European Union member but a NATO outsider due to a neutral status created after World War Two, said it could not allow troops it believed were being moved for a U.S. attack on Iraq to cross its territory.
"Austrian law does not allow us to approve foreign troop movements without the proper grounds, in this case a U.N. mandate (for an Iraq war)," Defence Ministry spokesman Guenther Barnet told Reuters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has sharply criticised European foes of an Iraq war such as France and Germany, accused Austria on Thursday of blocking the movement of U.S. troops by rail from Germany to Italy.
Rumsfeld's comments were a surprise to many in the Austrian government.
"It is not usually done to talk about these things," Barnet said about the fact that Austria had turned down a U.S. diplomatic request for permission to ship the troops.
"If the U.S. wants to make it public, that is their problem," Barnet said.
Barnet said the request for the troop movement had come "in the past few days" from the U.S. embassy in Vienna and been turned down by the Defence Ministry. Other government officials said they did not believe there was any damage to relations with Washington because the United States knew and understood Austria's neutrality policy.
Austria's Alpine passes would be the most direct route for the movement, apparently part of a buildup of American forces preparing for possible war against Iraq.
But conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose citizens are largely opposed to any Iraq war, has already ruled out letting U.S. or allied military aircraft pass through Austrian airspace for a war unless it is backed by an explicit U.N. mandate.
Schuessel has tried to maintain a balance within the EU's division into anti-war and pro-U.S. camps, saying Austria is "militarily but not politically neutral" and urging Iraq to comply with U.N. weapons inspections.
However, his foreign minister said on Friday she sympathised with a Franco-German blockade of military preparations by NATO for defence of the Turkish-Iraqi border that has infuriated Washington.
"I have understanding for the position of France, Germany and Belgium who are committed to the defence of Turkey in principle but do not want to plan for an Iraq war at the moment, when there is no U.N. mandate," Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the newspaper Der Standard.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Marcus Kabel
VIENNA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Neutral Austria said on Friday it had refused to let the United States redeploy troops from Germany to Italy across the Austrian Alps, the fastest route, and voiced surprise at criticism from Washington.
Austria, a European Union member but a NATO outsider due to a neutral status created after World War Two, said it could not allow troops it believed were being moved for a U.S. attack on Iraq to cross its territory.
"Austrian law does not allow us to approve foreign troop movements without the proper grounds, in this case a U.N. mandate (for an Iraq war)," Defence Ministry spokesman Guenther Barnet told Reuters.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has sharply criticised European foes of an Iraq war such as France and Germany, accused Austria on Thursday of blocking the movement of U.S. troops by rail from Germany to Italy.
Rumsfeld's comments were a surprise to many in the Austrian government.
"It is not usually done to talk about these things," Barnet said about the fact that Austria had turned down a U.S. diplomatic request for permission to ship the troops.
"If the U.S. wants to make it public, that is their problem," Barnet said.
Barnet said the request for the troop movement had come "in the past few days" from the U.S. embassy in Vienna and been turned down by the Defence Ministry. Other government officials said they did not believe there was any damage to relations with Washington because the United States knew and understood Austria's neutrality policy.
Austria's Alpine passes would be the most direct route for the movement, apparently part of a buildup of American forces preparing for possible war against Iraq.
But conservative Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, whose citizens are largely opposed to any Iraq war, has already ruled out letting U.S. or allied military aircraft pass through Austrian airspace for a war unless it is backed by an explicit U.N. mandate.
Schuessel has tried to maintain a balance within the EU's division into anti-war and pro-U.S. camps, saying Austria is "militarily but not politically neutral" and urging Iraq to comply with U.N. weapons inspections.
However, his foreign minister said on Friday she sympathised with a Franco-German blockade of military preparations by NATO for defence of the Turkish-Iraqi border that has infuriated Washington.
"I have understanding for the position of France, Germany and Belgium who are committed to the defence of Turkey in principle but do not want to plan for an Iraq war at the moment, when there is no U.N. mandate," Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the newspaper Der Standard.