NATO Hits Snag Over Training Mission

NATO envoys failed to agree Wednesday on plans for training Iraq’s security forces because of disagreements, particularly between the United States and France, over who will command the mission and who will pay.

“It’s not over, there will be another meeting tomorrow morning,” an official said as ambassadors of the 26 NATO nations emerged from their second meeting of the day on Iraq.

Some diplomats accused France of trying to stall an operation that NATO hopes to launch next month with an advance party of 20 to 30 personnel.

Others said Washington was holding things up by demanding that the mission be commonly funded -- rather than paid for by nations providing training -- and that it should come under the command of both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.

NATO leaders meeting last month in Istanbul, Turkey, promised support to Iraq’s government, which has asked the alliance for military equipment, protection for United Nations personnel and training for its troops and border guards.

But the wording of the Istanbul accord was deliberately vague because of French and German resistance to an overt or collective role for the alliance inside Iraq, and the envoys are trying to hammer out the details.

Diplomats said France wanted to give a green light to the advance party. But it resisted a push by the United States to agree on the full training package for Iraq before complex issues such as ensuring protection for trainers and financing for the mission are resolved.

France -- which, like Germany, has vowed not to send any of its own nationals to train Iraqi security forces -- would end up footing part of the bill if the mission was commonly funded.