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 by Staff Writers Washington (AFP) Jan 9, 2020
President Donald Trump likes to boast that he has a talent for coining nicknames. On Thursday, he unveiled what he called a "beautiful" acronym for NATO deployments in the Middle East -- NATOME. "I actually had a name: NATO, right, and then you have ME -- Middle East. NATOME. I said, what a beautiful name," Trump told reporters, in extensive comments about the issue. "NATO plus ME," he said. He said he'd proposed the acronym when he called the alliance's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday to demand that other NATO members do more on Middle Eastern security. "I think he was actually excited by it," Trump said. "I'm good at names, right?" Trump said, recounting his pride over the new US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement, known as USMCA, which replaces the former version dubbed NAFTA. "USMCA, like the song YMCA," Trump said, referring to the 1978 disco hit by the group Village People. "Nobody could remember USMCA. I said, 'Think of the song YMCA' and now everybody says it." Little other detail has emerged as to how NATO, a 70-year-old group relying largely on American leadership and firepower, might replace the US in Iraq or other Middle Eastern conflict zones. Trump said when that happens, "we can come home, or largely come home, and use NATO. This is an international problem."
Stoltenberg, Trump agree NATO could do more in Middle East Trump urged Stoltenberg on a call Wednesday for the alliance to step up its involvement in the Middle East, and the two leaders agreed to stay in "close contact" on the issue, according to a NATO readout of the call. "NATO plays a key role in the fight against international terrorism, including through training missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and as a member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS," said the call readout. The call came just hours after Tehran launched a missile strike on U.S.-held military bases in Iraq, which religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned were merely a "slap on the face" for the United States. Tensions in the region have escalated since the killing of Iran's top military commander Qassem Soleimani last week. NATO allies have expressed solidarity with the United States but some have withdrawn troops from Iraq. The alliance itself suspended a training mission last week to keep the Islamic State from regaining ground in the region, temporarily relocating to Kuwait as tensions between the U.S. and Iraq simmer. On Thursday, Trump mentioned at an unrelated event that he felt NATO should expand into the Middle East, and described Stoltenberg as "excited" about the idea.
NATO to examine Middle East options after Trump request Responding to a call from the US leader for the transatlantic alliance to "become much more involved" in the troubled region, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this did not have to mean large deployments of combat troops. He pointed to training missions run by the alliance in Afghanistan and Iraq -- where some 500 NATO forces are deployed to train local troops. "I strongly believe that the best way we can fight international terrorism is not always by deploying NATO troops in big combat operations," Stoltenberg told reporters. "The best way is to enable local forces to fight terrorism themselves, and that is exactly what we do in Afghanistan, what we do in Iraq, and of course we can look into if we can do more of that kind of activity." Trump and Stoltenberg spoke on Wednesday after the president made his call during a statement on a night of Iranian missile strikes on US bases in Iraq. The 70-year-old alliance boasts that it is the most successful in history, and was the lynchpin of Western European security throughout the Cold War. But its role, and indeed its founding treaty, has been focused on Europe and North America, despite the challenges facing the allied militaries in Asia, North Africa and the Near East. Stoltenberg refused to speculate in detail about how NATO might boost its role but stressed that any changes would be made after consultation with all 29 member states as well as countries in the Middle East. NATO has suspended its Iraq training mission since Friday's US strike killing Iranian commander Qasem Suleimani in Baghdad because of security fears. Some of the allied troops attached to the mission have been withdrawn from Iraq for their safety, but Stoltenberg has described this as a temporary measure.
US ties with Iraq, allies take hit after drone strike Baghdad (AFP) Jan 7, 2020 A deadly US drone strike in Baghdad has rocked America's ties with allies on the ground, left diplomats scrambling to contain the fallout and Iraqi officials outraged at the airspace violation. The strike on the outskirts of Baghdad's airport early Friday killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani and top Iraqi commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, among others. The US has hailed it as a win for "peace and stability" in the region, in contrast to Western diplomats and US military officials in Baghdad. ... read more
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