US finds new Afghan routes amid Kyrgyz defiance

DUSHANBE,(AFP)

The United States said on Friday it had found new Central Asian routes for sending supplies for expanded military operations in Afghanistan after Kyrgyzstan refused to reverse its closure of a key base. US Rear Admiral Mark Harnitchek said Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have agreed to the transit of non-lethal US supplies for troops in Afghanistan, after meeting Tajik officials in Dushanbe. His comments came as Kyrgyzstan officially informed the United States of its decision to close the Manas air base that the United States has used as a crucial supply hub for Afghanistan since 2001.

“Tajikistan has given its agreement to the use of its rail and automobile routes for the transit of non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan,” Harnitchek was quoted as saying by Tajik television.

He said that Uzbekistan had also “agreed” to the transit and Washington planned to send 50-200 containers weekly from Uzbekistan into Tajikistan and then by land into neighbouring Afghanistan.

Harnitchek, who spoke after a meeting with Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, is the latest top US official to pass through on a region increasing in strategic importance as the West steps up its Afghan operations.

“Any country that borders Afghanistan is very important for us. But Tajikistan is particularly important because it’s the shortest distance from our bases in Afghanistan,” he declared.

The spokeswoman for the US embassy in Dushanbe, Jackie McKennan, emphasised after his comments that “no formal agreement has been signed” between the sides.

“He (Harnitchek) is on a working visit, just reviewing the infrastructure. Nothing formal has been concluded today.”

The Uzbek foreign ministry in Tashkent declined to comment on whether it had approved the transit across its territory.

General David Petraeus, head of Central Command, which oversees the region, travelled to Uzbekistan on Tuesday for a visit widely seen as a sign Washington was seeking to use the country as a transit route for Afghanistan.

Bishkek’s official notification of the closure of the Manas air base came after Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev earlier Friday signed the decision into law.

These were the final legal steps required following parliament’s ratification on Thursday.

“The Kyrgyz foreign minister today sent a note to the US ambassador Tatiana Gfoeller informing of the cancellation of the December 5, 2001 agreement on the presence of US military personnel in Kyrgyzstan,” the Kyrgyz foreign ministry said in a statement.

The foreign ministry said that according to the agreement the United States now has 180 days to close down and leave the base.

Despite repeated statements by US and NATO officials urging Bishkek to reconsider, the Kyrgyz authorities have remained defiant with Bakiyev saying Washington was simply not paying the market rates.

The United States pays 17.4 million dollars a year to use the strategic air base.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said after talks with NATO counterparts in Poland that he still be believed the issue was “not closed” and there was the potential “to re-open this issue with the Kyrgyz.”

“If we are not able to do that on reasonable terms, then we are developing alternative methods of getting resupply and people into Afghanistan,” he added.

Bakiyev’s announcement last month of the closure came after Russia offered more than two billion dollars in aid to the struggling Kyrgyz economy. The government has insisted that Moscow did not set the closure as a condition.

The move by Kyrgyzstan complicates the US mission in Afghanistan, just days after President Barack Obama approved the deployment of 17,000 additional troops there to fight the Taliban-led insurgency.

Gates announced that up to 20 nations have offered to send extra civilian, military or training personnel to Afghanistan.

The logistics of supplying the expanded operations have also not been helped by a series of insurgent attacks on vital supply lines through Pakistan.