SKOPJE (Islamweb & News Agencies) - NATO envoys and the Macedonian government on Wednesday night resolved a last-minute row over the size and duration of an alliance force to buttress peace in the Balkan republic, diplomatic sources said.They told Reuters NATO's policymaking council of 19 member state ambassadors was in session to evaluate the deal and was likely to give the official green light soon after.
Earlier on Wednesday, NATO Secretary General George Robertson said the council had approved operational plans for the temporary security force but it could not be deployed until 11th-hour objections by Skopje were resolved.
Western diplomats in the Macedonian capital said a compromise had been hammered out under which the force would number 1,000 troops and have a mandate of three months with the option to extend it by mutual agreement.
``It's likely the NAC (North Atlantic Council) will approve it. They are reviewing it now. We may have an announcement tonight, if not, tomorrow morning,'' one diplomat told Reuters.
NATO's 30-day ``Harvest'' mission expired on Wednesday and its troops are set to begin pulling out. NATO was anxious to deploy the new force quickly to pre-empt any security void that armed extremists might exploit. (Read photo caption below)
The Macedonian peace accord is under strain from parliament's failure so far to approve reforms in return for NATO's disarming of the rebel National Liberation Army (NLA).
The U.N. Security Council endorsed the new force on Wednesday, satisfying German and Macedonian wishes for a broader imprimatur on the undertaking.
The Macedonian government, fearing for its sovereignty and still smarting over big peace concessions to ethnic Albanian minority, had been holding out for a NATO force of 700 soldiers and a mandate of three months, with the option of renewal.
Robertson said at that time: ``It's my hope that we can today finalize the details so that this mission can be deployed quickly under Germany's leadership.''
He said the force, codenamed Amber Fox, would succeed NATO's 4,500-strong Task Force Harvest, which collected weapons from ethnic Albanian fighters as after a Western-sponsored peace deal in August designed to give Albanians greater civil rights.
Robertson said the new mandate would be confined to safeguarding monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union from intimidation as they oversee the reintegration of Albanian lands.
PHOTO CAPTION:
A shadow of a Greek NATO peacekeeper is cast over weapons collected from ethnic Albanian fighters in Krivolak, Macedonia September 26, 2001, the final day of the alliance's operation 'Essential Harvest' 30-day mandate. (Radu Sigheti/Reuters)