The Russian writer mentions that Washington and its NATO allies have employed the putative campaign against al-Qaeda � ��" and now Taliban as well as the drug trade � ��" to secure, seize and upgrade 19 military bases in Afghanistan and Central Asia, including what can become strategic air bases like former Soviet ones in Bagram, Shindand, Herat, Farah, Kandahar and Jalalabad in Afghanistan. The analyst pointed out that � ���"The system of bases makes it possible for the US to exert military pressure on Russia, China, and Iran.� �� �
It suffices to recall that during the 1980s current U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was the CIA official in charge of the agency's largest-ever covert campaign, Operation Cyclone, to arm and train Afghan extremists in military camps in Pakistan for attacks inside Afghanistan. A � ���"porous border� �� � was not his concern at the time.
Konurov ended his article with an admonition:
� ���"There is permanent consensus in the ranks of the US establishment that the US presence in Afghanistan must continue.
� ���"Russia should not and evidently will not watch idly the developments at the southern periphery of post-Soviet space.� �� � [4]
Iran's top military commander, Yahya Rahim-Safavi, was quoted in his nation's media on September 7 offering a comparable analysis and issuing a similar warning. Saying that � ���"The recent security pact between US and NATO and Afghanistan showed the United States has no plan to leave the region,� �� � he observed that � ���"Russia worries about the US presence in Central Asia and China has concerns about US interference in its two main Muslim provinces bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan.� �� � [5]
To indicate that the range of the Western military threat extended beyond Central Asia and its borders with Russia and China, he also said the � ���"presence of more than 200,000 foreign forces in the region particularly in South-West Asia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Middle East, the expansion of their bases, the sale of billions of dollars of military equipments to Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and looting their oil resources are the root cause of insecurity in South-West Asia, the Persian Gulf region and Iran,� �� � and noted that � ���"US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf had been a cause for concern for Russia, China and Iran.� �� � [6]
The Iranian concern is hardly unwarranted. The August 31 edition of the Jerusalem Post revealed that � ���"NATO's interest in Iran has dramatically increased in recent months� �� � and � ���"In December 2006, Israeli Military Intelligence hosted the first of its kind international conference on global terrorism and intelligence, after which Israel and NATO established an intelligence-sharing mechanism.� �� �
The same article quoted an unnamed senior Israeli official as adding, � ���"NATO talks about Iran and the way it affects force structure and building.� �� � [7]
Six days earlier an American news agency released a report titled � ���"Middle East arms buys top $100 billion� �� � which said � ���"Middle Eastern countries are expected to spend more than $100 billion over the next five years� �� � the result of � ���"unprecedented packages"unveiled by President George W. Bush in January 2008 to counter Iran".� �� � [8]
The major recipients of American arms will be three nations in the Persian Gulf � ��" Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq � ��" as well as Israel.
Other Gulf states are among those to participate in this unparalleled arms buildup in Iran's neighborhood. � ���"The core of this arms-buying spree will undoubtedly be the $20 billion U.S. package of weapons systems over 10 years for the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council � ��" Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. [United Arab Emirates], Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain.� �� � [9]
A week ago Nicola de Santis, NATO's head of the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Countries Section in the NATO Public Diplomacy Division, visited the United Arab Emirates and met with the nation's foreign minister, Anwar Mohammed Gargash.
� ���"Prospects of UAE-NATO cooperation� �� � and � ���"NATO's Istanbul Cooperation Initiative� �� � were the main topics of discussion. [10]
The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative was formed at the NATO summit in Turkey in 2004 to upgrade the status of the Mediterranean Dialogue � ��" the Alliance's military partnerships with Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritania and Algeria � ��" to that of the Partnership for Peace. The latter was used to prepare twelve nations for full NATO accession over the last ten years.
The second component of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative concerns formal and ongoing NATO military ties with the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council: The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain (where the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is headquartered), Kuwait, Oman and Qatar.
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