NATO Solution for Turkey Seen Early Next Week

The 18-member NATO defense planning committee, of which France is not a member, would agree to send AWACS early warning aircraft to Turkey. A NATO spokesman said no meeting of the decision-making North Atlantic Council was planned Saturday but he could not rule out a possible rare session Sunday if there was a chance of a breakthrough. The dissenting European allies had insisted it was premature for NATO to take any measures that would imply acceptance of military action against Iraq at a time when U.N. weapons inspectors were still trying to disarm the country peacefully. The U.S. ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, warned that the alliance’s credibility was at stake and NATO Secretary-General George Robertson circulated speaking notes to allied leaders, accusing the three of acting as "wreckers" of the alliance. The sources said France believed the standoff had underlined the principle that it was up to the United Nations Security Council, not NATO, to approve any military action against Iraq. After the three countries vetoed a U.S. request to start military planning last Monday, Turkey invoked Article IV of NATO’s founding treaty, which allows any ally to request consultations if it feels its security is threatened.