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Iran has identified seven US bases in the region to attack in case there is the smallest sign of American mobilisation to its borders, and the military assets have been broadly identified to be in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, and Djibouti. Official sources said Iran has also threatened US warships and specific military assets in the Persian Gulf in case it moved for a naval blockade, and these decisions were taken by the Iranian national security council after president Mohammad Ahmadinejad’s combative speech in the UN General Assembly, where he said that in the face of U.S....

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS SURROUND RUSSIAN BASE WITHDRAWAL IN GEORGIA Theresa Freese 8/22/05 As Russia completes the first stage of its base withdrawal from Georgia, residents of Ajara are concerned about the economic implications of the departure of Russian troops. The parameters for Russia’s withdrawal from its last two remaining military bases in Georgia were set by a joint declaration singed in late May. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. While eager to see the Russian military leave, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has acknowledged that the withdrawal could exacerbate "social issues." Government officials recognize that Russia’s withdrawal will have a broad...

Once the pride of the Soviet navy, Russia's Black Sea Fleet can still put on an impressive display. But it could soon be fighting for its own survival, the BBC's Helen Fawkes reports from Sevastopol, in Crimea. Thousands of Ukrainians lined the harbour at Sevastopol to watch the powerful show of strength in a demonstration battle for the public by the fleet, which is based in Crimea. A fighter jet swooped low over the southern tip of Ukraine to attack a giant warship from the Russian navy. The vessel returned gunfire and green torpedoes cut through the water towards advancing...

Karshi-Khanabad air base in south-eastern Uzbekistan, which the US has been given six months to leave, has played a key role in supporting US operations in Afghanistan since 2001. Its location in a secure area, a short journey from the border with Afghanistan, makes it an ideal logistical centre outside the field of military operations. Known by US troops as K2, it is used as a landing base for humanitarian goods, which are then taken by road into often inaccessible areas of northern Afghanistan. Its long runway also makes it useful for refuelling large military aircraft. Flight curbs Uzbekistan's authoritarian...

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan assured the United States on Tuesday that it could keep its base in the former Soviet Central Asian state to support American military operations in Afghanistan. But remarks by the Kyrgyz leadership, under pressure on the issue from old ally Russia, fell short of providing the United States with an open-ended right to stay for as long as it wished. "I wouldn't pack your bags," visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told U.S. troops at the base at Manas international airport, 30 km (17 miles) east of the capital Bishkek, in an upbeat comment after talks with...

U.S. and Romanian officials are drawing closer to a deal that could give the U.S. military wide access to as many as five bases here, Romania’s defense minister said during a visit Sunday to an army training base. An arrangement could be reached as soon as September, Defense Minister Teodor Atanasiu said in an interview with Stars and Stripes. Atanasiu said he offered the United States five bases in a proposal that the Romanian government supports. He said U.S. officials are considering three of them, including Babadag, where 1,500 U.S. and Romanian soldiers are training this month. Also being discussed...

For the past several years, the United States has stationed forces in the central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Marshall Goldman, a long time-expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union, says the United States planned to send troops there following the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "After September 11th and the United States' decision to go after the Taleban and Osama bin Laden, who was then in Afghanistan, the United States was looking for places to establish air bases, so that it could supply what became the invasion force in Afghanistan," said Mr....

WASHINGTON – The base-closing commission voted Tuesday to add two military facilities, in California and Maine, to the list of hundreds of domestic bases that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has proposed closing and shrinking. The Navy Broadway Complex in San Diego and the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, were added to the list of facilities to be closed. The commission also was voting on whether to add bases in nine other states and Washington, D.C. In a reprieve for California, the commission voted against putting the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on the closure list even though several commissioners...

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a relatively new regional entity. It started in 1996, and was first known as the Shanghai Five, bringing together Russia, China and three central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Those three countries share borders with either Russia or China - or both. Martha Brill Olcott Martha Brill Olcott is central Asian expert with the Washington D.C.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She says, originally, the organization was formed to try to resolve disputed border issues between member nations. "Once it got through that first threshold, the member states decided that they saw a need...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday urged a federal panel to shield nearly a dozen state military installations slated for closure, saying "the bases that are here should stay here." But despite the potential loss of about 2,000 jobs, the Republican governor acknowledged that the state escaped largely unscathed in the latest round of base closings proposed in May by the Defense Department. The government's list is "good news for California and the country," Schwarzenegger told members of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which is reviewing the proposed changes. "It shows that Washington understands what we...

During a press conference following the meetings, Ms. Rice rejected a call by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security grouping led by China and Russia, for the United States to set a deadline for leaving Central Asian states, including Afghanistan. "It is our understanding that the people of Afghanistan want and need the help of U.S. armed forces," she said.

An alliance of former Soviet states and China has urged the US-led coalition in Afghanistan to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from member states. The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation said it continued to support the anti-terror coalition in Afghanistan, which had stabilised the situation. But in a joint statement the group said the active military phase of the Afghan operation was nearing completion. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan host US bases used to back troops in Afghanistan. About 18,000 coalition forces are in Afghanistan tracking al-Qaeda and Taleban militants. SHANGHAI CO-OPERATION ORGANISATION China Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan Uzbekistan At talks in Kazakhstan,...

Saturday, May 14, 2005 Maine takes big hit By BART JANSEN, Washington Correspondent Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend Staff photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette Maine Sen. Susan Collins rips into the base-closure recommendations at a Friday press conference in Brunswick. With her, from left, are U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, Gov. John Baldacci, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe. With Maine bearing the brunt of a plan to restructure the nation's military, lawmakers and community leaders vowed Friday to fight plans to close Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and halve...

Koreans protest possible job cuts at U.S. bases By T.D. Flack and Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Saturday, May 14, 2005 T.D. Flack / S&S South Koreans riot police watch South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases in the Seoul area stage a protest Thursday near Yongsan Garrison. Seth Robson / S&S South Korean base workers protest near Uijongbu train station on Thursday. T.D. Flack / S&S South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases gather near Yongsan Garrison to protest U.S. Forces Korea's announcement that it might cut up to 1,000 jobs. T.D. Flack / S&S...

A panel chartered by Congress to advise on redeployments of U.S. forces abroad is questioning the wisdom of reducing the number of troops on Japan's Okinawa island at a time of strategic uncertainties in the region. In a report released Monday, the Overseas Basing Commission recommended that U.S. Marines at one Okinawan base, the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, should be moved -- either to another U.S. base on the island, or to one located on Honshu, Japan's main island. Apart from Futenma, however, all other Marine Corps assets on Okinawa should remain there. "Okinawa is the strategic linchpin to...

One of the Pentagon's best-kept secrets will be let out of the bag this week, and thousands of Southern Arizonans are holding their breath to see what happens. The Defense Department is expected to announce by Friday which military bases it plans to shut down in a major round of base closings that could eliminate dozens of the country's 425 defense installations. Arizona's major installations, including Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Sierra Vista's Fort Huachuca, are expected to dodge the base-closing bullet. They could even grow, absorbing troops and missions from facilities that close in the Base Realignment and...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said Wednesday it would extend for another year an agreement allowing the United States to use its Incirlik airbase for planes supplying U.S. and allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the U.S. embassy in Ankara said it was still awaiting notification and said it remained unclear whether Turkey would grant its request for a widening of the terms of the existing deal, including blanket clearance for all flights. The current deal expires in June and U.S. diplomats have expressed frustration that Turkey has so far not replied to its request, lodged some 10 months ago,...

WASHINGTON - A longtime Republican foe of this year's planned closing of military bases is trying to derail the process by blocking Senate confirmation of the head of the commission that helps pick which facilities will be shuttered, congressional aides and lobbyists said Thursday. Most GOP leaders support closing bases and this latest round likely will go forward. But Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a staunch defender of military facilities in his state, has pledged to do whatever it takes to block the closures. Two weeks ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved President Bush's nomination of Anthony Principi, Bush's former...

Tuesday is a big day in the BRAC process. Fort Huachuca, like every other military base in the United States, is now in the stretch run. The naming of the commission member is a step toward making the BRAC process a reality. The commission members take the list that will be issued by the Department of Defense on May 16 and will review the military's decisions. What do we hope for from the BRAC commission? First, we hope its members are fair in their review of what bases should be reduced or closed. By this, we hope that the commission...

WASHINGTON - Safe for a decade, military bases in the United States face an uncertain future. The Pentagon (news - web sites) plans to shut down or scale back some of the 425 facilities, the first such effort to save money in 10 years. The downsizing is part of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's long-term transformation of the Cold War-era military. The Pentagon chief argues that closing or consolidating stateside facilities could save $7 billion annually and that the money would be better spent improving fighting capabilities amid threats from terrorists. "The department continues to maintain more military bases and...