The Manas airbase near the capital Bishkek serves as an important supply route for US and Nato operations in Afghanistan.

It was set up by the United States in 2001 to support Operation Enduring Freedom – the US-led fight against al-Qaeda and the Taleban in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyzstan was chosen because it offered coalition forces unrestricted overflight rights for aircraft flying combat, humanitarian and search-and-rescue missions.

Since the US were ordered out of Karshi-Khanabad in Uzbekistan, following a dispute with the Uzbek government over human rights in 2005, Manas has been the only American airbase in Central Asia.

Transport hub

An average of 15,000 US soldiers go through it every month on their way in and out of Afghanistan.

Those bound for Afghanistan arrive in huge transport planes and, after a day or two on the base, get ferried to their posts in smaller aircraft, which are less easy targets for militants.

The base is also home to the large tanker aircraft that are used for in-air refuelling of fighter planes on combat missions over Afghanistan, and it acts as a funnel for anything the troops could need: from medical supplies, food and uniforms, to building materials.

Both the State Department and the Pentagon have acknowledged the importance of the Kyrgyz base.

The US has more than 30,000 troops in Afghanistan and President Barack Obama is expected to almost double that number as part of his plans to increase the war effort there.

But they are also at pains to stress US operations in Afghanistan will not be seriously disrupted at a crucial time.

“We never have a single point of failure,” Major John Redfield, a spokesman for the US military, told the BBC.

“We are just going to find other means of supplying the folks in Afghanistan.”

Alternative routes

So which route will the US choose for its soldiers and supplies to reach Afghanistan?

At present, about 75% of US military supplies – everything from fuel to heavy equipment – passes through Pakistan.

However, the route, which winds hundreds of miles from the port city of Karachi through the Khyber Pass to the Afghan-Pakistani border, is slow and dangerous.

It has also become a target for militants seeking to disrupt the Nato and US supply chain.

Six people were wounded on Friday when a suicide car bomber blew himself up at a Pakistani security post on the pass.

The attack came shortly after the main bridge linking Pakistan to Afghanistan had reopened, following a bomb explosion on Tuesday.

There are other options too.
See map of existing and possible supply routes

Tajikistan

The Tajik president has offered a transit route for commercial and humanitarian supplies.

“They should be destined not only for the military but it is also important they are used for the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” President Emomali Rakhmon said.

The US ambassador to Tajikistan, Tracey Ann Jacobson, said the transit would take the land route to Afghanistan via a new bridge over the Panj river, which was part-funded by the Americans.

But there is still the question of how to get supplies to Tajikistan in large volumes in the first place.

Uzbekistan

The US could consider trying to resume its military co-operation with Uzbekistan. The airbase at Karshi-Khanabad allowed US troops ready access to the Afghan border, until 2005.

But it would be politically difficult for Washington to restore a relationship of this kind with one of the most authoritarian countries in the region, says Cory Welt of the Eurasian Strategy Project at Georgetown University.

US soldiers have still been able to pass through Uzbekistan on their way to Afghanistan – via a German airbase at Termez – but only if they are attached to Nato forces.

The Kazakh government has a warmer relationship with the US, but it has not offered Washington a lifeline out of its current predicament.

US aircraft carrying out military operations in Afghanistan are allowed to land at the military section of Almaty airport in emergencies, but not as a matter of routine.

Arab states

A spokesman for the US military, Major John Redfield, said another potential option would be an extension of the air supply routes from Kuwait and Qatar.

The Pentagon already has airbases in both countries, but Major Redfield told the BBC that flying supplies in from the Arab states would be three or four times more expensive than other options such using trucks, trains or ships from countries neighbouring Afghanistan.

The closure plan for Manas still needs to be approved by the Kyrgyz parliament. A vote on the issue has been scheduled for next week.

The pro-government party holds a majority of the seats in parliament and all that is needed is a simple majority.

So on the face of it, the vote could be a formality, says Georgetown University’s Cory Welt.

“But there could also be a way for the government to change its mind on the closure without losing face, by asking its MPs to vote against its own plan,” he says

“It all depends on the balance of power in the Kyrgyz government,” Mr Welt says.

For some members, it could be partly a financial question. On the one hand there is the $17m the US is already annually to rent the base – and the $150m it gives each year in aid – on the other, there is the promise of the much larger sum of $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid that Russia is now holding out.

US options after Kyrgyz base closure

Norway, which has led efforts to ban cluster bombs, was the first to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which bans the use, production, and sale of the weapons.

Next came Laos and Lebanon, both of which have experienced the lingering lethal effects of the munitions.

The United States, China, India, Israel, Pakistan and Russia are among countries refusing to sign the cluster bomb ban.

The U.S. State Department Tuesday said outlawing the bombs would put the lives of American troops and their coalition partners at risk.

Cluster bombs contain hundreds of smaller explosives that detonate over a wide area. Some of the explosives can fail to explode on impact and act as landmines, menacing civilian populations long after a conflict is over.

U.S. officials say the weapons are still useful, but that the Pentagon plans to phase out using current cluster bomb technology by 2018.

The State Department says it is concerned about the dangers unexploded bombs pose to civilians and says Washington has spent more than one billion dollars cleaning them up.

The group Human Rights Watch Tuesday appealed to President-elect Barack Obama to reverse Bush administration policy and make joining the cluster ban treaty a top priority.

Thirty countries must ratify the treaty for it to take effect.

VOA News

In all, eight parties met behind closed doors at the U.N.’s European headquarters in Geneva for the one-day talks and agreed to meet again next month, EU representative Pierre Morel said.

“Today we have taken a big step forward,” Morel said. “All of the participants have recognized that the security situation remains quite unsatisfactory.”

The U.N. refugee agency estimates more than 30,000 people are still unable to return to their homes, and tensions in the region remain high.

“There are places where ethnic clashes and ethnic hatred still prevail,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin admitted.

His comments were mirrored by Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Giga Bokeria, who said he feared “ethnic cleansing in those occupied territories where ethnic Georgians still live.”

Morel said it was the first time that all of the parties had met directly. An initial attempt at negotiations broke down last month, in part over disagreements whether representatives from Georgia’s two breakaway provinces, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, should take part.

Maxim Gvindzhiya of Abkhazia’s separatist government said his delegation and one from South Ossetia attended on an informal basis this time to keep the talks on track.

The other participants were the EU, the U.N., Russia, Georgia, the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried said the talks “went far better” than last time.

“There were productive discussions of some of the tough issues. (But) there remain vast areas of fundamental differences,” Fried said. “There were and are a lot of people with guns … who just want to shoot.”

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack called the talks “a positive step.”

Russia, meanwhile, said it reiterated during the meeting that Georgia needs to pledge not to attack South Ossetia or Abkhazia, and that other countries should refrain from supplying Tbilisi with offensive military weapons.

Karasin said he came away with a “mixed” assessment of the meeting, but added now there is a “sense of hope.”

Johan Verbeke, special U.N. envoy for Georgia, said the sides had agreed on methods to demarcate borders and had begun work on security issues and the return of refugees.

“I’d call this a quantum leap,” said Verbeke. “All of the delegations did speak, all of the delegations listened.”

More than 160,000 people fled fighting that broke out Aug. 7 when Georgian forces launched an attack to regain control of South Ossetia. Russian forces repelled the attack, drove deep into Georgia, and stayed there for weeks.

Russia still has thousands of troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and has recognized both as independent nations.

Amnesty International has accused both sides of violating international law during the war.

The Associated Press:

Karzai said over the weekend he would “go to any lengths” to provide protection to Mullah Omar if the militant leader agrees to enter peace talks.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousif told CNN that Karzai’s offer is meaningless because he has to rely on the British and the Americans to provide his own security.

Yousif said his group would not negotiate peace as long as international forces remained in Afghanistan.

Karzai told reporters in Kabul on Sunday that if Mullah Omar is “willing to come to Afghanistan or to negotiate for peace and for the well-being of the Afghans, so that our children are not killed anymore, I, as the president of Afghanistan, will go to any length to provide him protection.”

He added that the international community has two choices if they disagree with his overture: either try to oust him, or leave.

A White House official Monday cast strong doubt on the willingness of the Taliban’s reclusive leader to spurn his group’s violent ways and back the Afghan government.

“No one has heard from Mullah Omar in sometime, and given attacks like last week’s when some Taliban threw acid on girls going to school, many don’t seem to show a willingness to negotiate,” said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe “We’re not seeing any indication from Mullah Omar that he is ready to renounce violence, break all ties to al Qaeda and support the Afghan government and constitution.”

Omar has been on the U.S. military’s most-wanted list since a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban rulers from Afghanistan in 2001. He is accused of harboring al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the run-up to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and the U.S. government has offered $10 million for information leading to his capture.

Karzai came to power with the support and backing of the international leaders he seems to be defying with his latest comments. In recent months, he has also taken the United States to task for mounting civilian casualties resulting from U.S. air strikes on apparent militant targets.

In September, Taliban representatives met with Afghan and Pakistani officials during a dinner hosted by Saudi Arabia’s king. All parties agreed that the only solution to Afghanistan’s conflict is through dialogue and not fighting, a source told CNN’s Nic Robertson.

The sides agreed on another round of talks in the Saudi city of Mecca in December, according to the source — who cannot be named because he is not allowed to speak publicly on this subject. The source has provided reliable information in the past.

The source said the Saudis believe Omar wants a commitment from Karzai to talk to the United States about phasing out U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Karzai has said foreign troops are necessary for Afghanistan’s security.

CNN.com

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, heading the EU side at a one-day summit in the French resort of Nice, and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev will then fly directly to Washington to join the G20 meeting of top economies on the crisis.

Despite some reservations, EU states agreed on Monday to relaunch talks on a broad partnership pact frozen after Russia’s August military incursion into Western ally Georgia.

They plan to focus on the financial turmoil and the Europeans will air concerns about security of energy supplies from Russia, the bloc’s number one supplier of gas and number two supplier of oil.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the “tonality” of the meeting was more important that concrete outcomes.

“You can’t expect it’s going to be business as usual in 24 hours — you know what is the mood in some of the countries of the European Union,” he told Reuters.

“But everybody thinks that to have a framework in which a relationship can take place is better than not having it.”

He welcomed comments by Medvedev on the eve of the summit in which he spoke of the need to cooperate on the financial crisis and confirmed Russia’s intention to join the World Trade Organization, but on “non-humiliating” terms.

“He has made an effort to be clear on matters that are economic in nature, some of them will help to find common ground …and he was very clear on the WTO.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said ahead of the summit more cooperation was in the interests of both sides and the EU sought a clear signal from Russia.

Medvedev said Russia hoped to see relations pushed forward and he pledged Moscow would remain a reliable energy partner.

“We want transparent relations with all states which buy our energy resources, including those in Europe,” he said on Thursday. “I hope tomorrow we will give an impetus for more intensive talks. We are ready to start as early as tomorrow.”

LACK OF TRUST

EU officials say the summit will not aim for a joint position ahead of the G20 but would see some convergence.

Medvedev said he was working with Europeans on such ideas. “Our positions often coincide, sometimes even in details,” he said. “I am sure in Washington we will be speaking one language.”

The 27-nation EU wants to keep its reliance on Russian supplies growing after disputes between Moscow and transit states disrupted supplies in recent years and Russia’s incursion into Georgia which has stoked tension with the West.

EU officials say Russia’s action in Georgia and Medvedev’s threat to station missiles near EU member Poland have undermined trust. They say the decision to resume talks was based on necessity, not acceptance of Russian actions.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin did little to calm EU unease when he warned on Wednesday Moscow may scrap its Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, Nord Stream, and build liquefaction plants instead if Europe keeps delaying the project.

The pipeline, due to link Russia and Germany, has sparked protests in EU countries such as Poland, Lithuania and Estonia, angered at being shut out of a key gas supply route.

Putin did though offer a concession in a dispute that has held up EU ratification of Russia’s WTO bid. Moscow would delay bringing in prohibitive duties on raw timber exports that threaten industries in Sweden and Finland, he said.

EU, Russia seek to put ties back on track

On Sept. 1, the European Union froze talks with Russia on a strategic partnership agreement until Russian troops withdrew to positions they held before Aug. 7, the day hostilities broke out in South Ossetia, a breakaway region of Georgia. The decision was presented as a rare and bracing show of European unity.

Monday’s decision to resume talks was a clear acknowledgment of how much Europe and Russia need each other economically, especially as the global financial crisis reorders priorities, foreign ministers and analysts said. Among the issues expected to be discussed when talks resume are energy, trade, and cooperation on security and combating terrorism.

Russia supplies a considerable portion of Europe’s energy needs, and many Europeans fear that makes them vulnerable to Kremlin pressure. Russia, meanwhile, needs the earnings from energy exports.

Improved relations with Russia, a member of the Group of 8, may help broader European objectives of reshaping global financial structures.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the presidency of the European Union, will meet his Russian counterpart, Dmitri A. Medvedev, in Nice, France, on Friday before both head to a meeting on the global economy in Washington.

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, conceded that there was some doubt about whether Moscow had met all conditions of the agreement to end the Georgia conflict that was laboriously negotiated by France. But, he added, the fact that 26 out of 27 nations agreed to resume talks — Lithuania was the only dissenter — was “not bad” as a barometer of European unity.

Both Lithuania and Poland have taken a tough line on relations with Russia, and domestic opinion there hardened last week when Moscow threatened to place missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which borders both countries.

Mr. Kouchner said that some areas adjacent to South Ossetia that were occupied “legitimately or illegitimately by Russian troops” should be discussed in Geneva, where talks on the future of the region have begun, if haltingly. He added that the concessions offered by Moscow, including the withdrawal of many Russian troops and Russian participation in the Geneva talks, were sufficient to merit a return to the negotiating table.

Russia still maintains troops in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway region in Georgia, both of which it has recognized as independent states.

Because the talks with Russia were postponed rather than formally suspended, they can be resumed without the support of all 27 European Union members. Mr. Kouchner and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for external relations, made it clear on Monday that Lithuania’s objections were not sufficient to stop resumption.

Britain and Poland, which initially took a tough line on relations with Russia, also supported new talks. The Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said the move put Poland in the “mainstream of the E.U.”

Nicu Popescu, a research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said it was “clear that the financial crisis is more important for everyone — the E.U. and Russia — than the crisis in Georgia.”

Alexander Stubb, Finland’s foreign minister, agreed. “Realpolitik has influenced this,” he said. “It is in Europe’s interests to restart talks.”

NYTimes.com

The fund was agreed in August to settle remaining lawsuits in the US.

The attacks include the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco which killed three and wounded more than 200

Under the deal, Libya did not accept responsibility for the attacks, but agreed to compensate victims.

The BBC’s Kim Ghattas in Washington says it is the final step in a long diplomatic process, which has seen Libya come back into the international fold.

US contribution

The first $300m Libyan payment into the fund was made on 9 October, shortly after an historic visit to Tripoli by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Its second payment of $600m was received on Thursday and a final instalment of $600m was made on Friday, said David Welch, the US diplomat who negotiated the settlement.

In exchange, President Bush has signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government’s immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing pending compensation cases in the US, the White House said.

Our correspondent says it is unclear why it took so long for the money to be paid into the fund.

She adds that there may have been contributions by American companies lured by business opportunities in Tripoli and keen to expedite the process of normalising ties.

The US State Department, however, has insisted that no money from the American taxpayer will be used for the US portion of the fund.

Libya has already paid the families of Lockerbie victims $8m (£4m) each, but it owes them $2m more.

The fund will also be used to compensate relatives of seven Americans who died in the bombing of a French UTA airliner over Chad in 1989.

In 2004, Libya agreed to pay $35m in compensation to non-US victims of the 1986 Berlin bombing.

In the same year, relatives of non-US victims of the UTA bombing accepted a payment of $1m each from the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations.

Relations between Libya and the US improved in 2003 when Tripoli stopped working on weapons of mass destruction.

The decision led to the restoration of US diplomatic ties with Libya in 2006.

In turn, it was removed from America’s list of countries sponsoring terrorism.

BBC NEWS

The meeting on Sunday was the first between the two leaders since Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon and comes five months after Qatar mediated an end to an 18-month political conflict in Lebanon which had escalated into street battles.

“There was an affirmation of national unity and civil peace and the need to take all measures to prevent tension … and to reinforce dialogue and to avoid strife regardless of political differences,” the statement issued by both sides said.

The rare meeting between Nasrallah and al-Hariri marks a thaw in relations between the two opponents before parliamentary elections scheduled for 2009.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television aired footage of the meeting, which was also attended by aides to both leaders.

The joint statement also said that Nasrallah and al-Hariri would be in “mutual contact”.

Political differences

The differences between Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim political organisation which runs an armed wing, and member parties of the March 14 parliamentary majority flared into armed conflict in May.

Fighters from Hezbollah and its allies briefly took control of predominantly Muslim west Beirut, prompting an armed response by supporters of the March 14 bloc, including those allied to al-Hariri’s Future Movement.

The joint statement released on Monday said that the meeting was “honest and open” and said that the leaders would take “steps to calm the situation in the media and in the street”.

The talks between al-Hariri and Nasrallah are being seen in Lebanon as the most significant of a series of meetings between politicians from March 14 and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

Nasrallah and al-Hariri are also committed to implementing the Qatar-mediated deal which in May had called for “national dialogue” talks, Monday’s joint statement said.

The next session is scheduled for November 5.

Weapons issue

The parliamentary majority is calling for Hezbollah to disarm, in favour of building a stronger Lebanese national army.

However, Hezbollah insists that its weapons are essential to a Lebanese national resistance against Israel, its southern neighbour.

Israel failed to destroy Hezbollah during a 34-day war in 2006, which was sparked by a Hezbollah cross-border raid.

Demands for the disarmament of Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, have become increasingly shrill since the 2005 assassination of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former Lebanese prime minister and Saad’s father.

Hezbollah is the most powerful faction in Lebanon and its opposition bloc holds veto power over decisions taken in Lebanon’s cabinet.

While Hezbollah is not willing to disarm, its leaders have said that the organisation is willing to discuss a defence strategy that would define the role of its fighters.

Al Jazeera English – Middle East – Nasrallah and al-Hariri enter talks

Bilateral talks on the issue were held on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe summit (Asem) in Beijing.

The demarcation of land around Preah Vihear temple on the countries’ border has never been clearly settled.

Tensions have recently been rekindled, and last week erupted into open combat. Three Cambodian and one Thai soldier died in exchanges of fire.

‘Uncontrollable’

Foreign ministers from the two countries spoke to reporters after the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Thai counterpart, Somchai Wongsawat, held talks earlier on Friday.

“We are not just neighbours, we are very good friends indeed,” Thai Foreign Minister Sompong Amornwiwat said.

“His Excellency Hun Sen said the incident that already happened is not the kind that both countries want. It happened instantly. That was uncontrollable at the time.”

Mr Sompong added that the two sides had been advised to avoid confrontation.

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said: “What happened between us we have to solve peacefully, amicably, for the sake of our neighbourliness.”

The military stand-off began in July when Cambodian troops detained three Thai protesters who had entered the site illegally.

The dispute centres on 1.8 square miles (4.6 sq km) of scrub near the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple.

An international court awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962, but land surrounding it remains the subject of rival territorial claims.

‘No quick resolution’

Meanwhile, senior military officials echoed the pledge to reduce tensions as they met in Siem Reap in northern Cambodia.

Both are sides are “committed to exercising their utmost restraint to avoid confrontation or armed clashes”, said Cambodian regional army commander Maj Gen Chea Mon, according to AP news agency.

The two sides had agreed to joint border patrols to defuse tensions, but according to AFP news agency these have not materialised.

The BBC’s Guy De Launey, in Beijing for the Asem summit, cautions that Thailand’s domestic political situation could prove a distraction – and he says Cambodia has indicated it is not expecting a swift resolution.

The issue stirs intense nationalist passions on both sides, and an army recruitment drive in border areas has been over-subscribed, he adds.

BBC NEWS

“Al-Maliki told the British side that Iraq will discuss the matter after finalizing the agreement with the US,” Haydar al-Abadi, a Parliamentarian from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) told the Voices of Iraq news agency.

Maliki has called for the withdrawal of British combat troops from the country after their UN mandate expires at the end of 2008.

“The Iraqi vision highlights that there is no need for the presence of British forces in Iraq after the end of their authorization by the end of 2008,” Abadi added.

Iraq is still faced with a dilemma over the long-term presence of US forces in the country. While Washington is pushing hard for signing a controversial agreement with Baghdad to provide a legal basis for its military presence inside the war-ravaged country, political and religious figures call for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq as soon as possible.

At first, the US expected that it could easily clinch the agreement thanks to the news blackout imposed on the media, but the deal was faced with hurdles and turned into a thorny issue after it was disclosed that the agreement would grant immunity from legal prosecution to US citizens.

The deal must be endorsed by the Iraqi National Assembly before it comes into effect.

The Iraqi cabinet has asked the US to amend the latest draft of the deal and a majority of lawmakers from both Sunni and Shia are also opposed to the deal.

Washington, however, has warned Baghdad of “dire consequences” if it rejects the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).

Reports circulated by the local media claimed that US Deputy Secretary of State, John Negroponte had even threatened to topple the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki if he refused to sign the deal.

Press TV – Iraq: No security deal with UK at hand