Published: September 16, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor
Crossfire War: Russia to Participate with NATO in Mediterranean Patrols
By Willard Payne
Night Watch: BERLIN - Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted by Reuters Wednesday, "Around the end of January 2006 we shall send a group of ships from our Black Sea fleet to take part."
The announcement was made here at a NATO conference where NATO spent most of the time praising itself. The Russian announcement was welcomed by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer who called it a "landmark in NATO-Russia relations."
When World War III became more obvious as a result or Iran’s 9/11 attack NATO began patroling the Mediterranean and have since then hailed 65,000 vessels suspected of terrorists connections. The West’s concerns increased when in July of 2002 Rabat said to Madrid that the boundary between Morocco and Spain was in the wrong place, as if one could move the Strait of Gibraltar.
The dispute really had nothing to do with the narrow strip of Spanish territory along Morcco’s coast. The crisis was not started by fundamentalist demonstrators out on the street somewhere burning effigies but by Morocco’s government.
Strategic as the Mediterranean is, with more maritime traffic than anywhere else in the world, action in eastern theatres of war could prevent Moscow from taking part in Mediterranean patrols for a while.
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