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15:32 GMT
BRUSSELS, Dec 5 (KUNA) -- NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen Monday said Macedonia will only be accepted as a member in the Alliance only after a name dispute with its neighbor Greece has been resolved.
The ruling by the International Court of Justice "does not affect the decision taken by NATO Allies at the Bucharest (NATO) summit in 2008," he said in a statement.
"We agreed that an invitation will be extended to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached. This decision was reiterated at subsequent summit and ministerial meetings," he added.
The International Court of Justice, ICJ, in The Hague Monday found Greece guilty of breaching the UN 1995 deal with Macedonia by blocking the country's membership of NATO in 2008.
ICJ, the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, said in a press release that fifteen judges voted in favour and one against that Greece "by objecting to the admission of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to NATO, has breached its obligation under Article 11, paragraph 1, of the Interim Accord of 13 September." Macedonia argued that the 1995 UN-brokered Interim Accord obliges Athens not to block its accession to international organisations so long it uses its provisonal name of former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM.
Greece had argued that it cannot support Macedonia's bid to join the Alliance, because of an unresolved dispute over its neighbour's name.
The ICJ, however, rejected Macedonia's request to order Greece to stop blocking Macedonia from joining international organizations in future.
The ICJ noted that its judgment is final, without appeal and is binding on the parties. end nk.sd KUNA 051832 Dec 11NNNN