GERMANY: Germany has said it may withdraw its peacekeeping troops from Afghanistan in the event of a war on Iraq, according to a leaked government report.
The report says peacekeepers and aid workers could be at risk from scattered Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters as well as some sections of Afghan government forces.
"In the event of a military operation in Iraq, a further worsening of the security situation can also be expected in Kabul," said the report, leaked to the Financial Times. "Sympathy for terrorist groups" among Afghans would grow following an Iraq war, the report said, leading to "more intensified armed actions of terrorist groups in Kabul".
Mr Peter Struck, the Defence Minister, confirmed the existence of the plan to evacuate troops as a last resort if they faced an "unacceptable risk".
"I do not want to rule out that the situation will be aggravated by an Iraq war," he said, adding that foreign aid workers in Afghanistan would also be removed to safety if a dangerous situation developed.
"That can been carried out in just under a week. That is guaranteed," he said in Berlin yesterday.
Mr Struck had first-hand experience of the growing risks to International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Kabul last week after two rockets landed near the German compound during his visit. The Minister and his delegation took shelter in a bunker and no one was injured. It was the second such attack in recent weeks.
Germany took over joint command of the 4,800-strong ISAF international mission with the Netherlands earlier this month.
There are over 10,000 German soldiers serving as peacekeepers around the world, with 1,700 in Afghanistan, but that could soon change under a drastic rationalisation programme announced by Mr Struck yesterday.
The Defence Ministry plans to cancel orders for dozens of war-planes and helicopters and to reform the navy. However, Mr Struck rejected media reports that the army's budget was to be slashed by around €3.2 billion.
He said the German army, the Bundeswehr, was at the start of a decade-long reform programme.
Any money saved through cost-cutting would be reinvested in the army on foreign operations, including missions outside the NATO area, he said.
This was possible because German territory was not likely to come under threat "in the foreseeable future", he said.
The reform plans come when NATO and the EU have called for increases in military spending, and are unlikely to endear Germany to the US.
