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Argos Media

Venezuela offers bases for bombers: Russian general - washingtonpost.com - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2009031400402.html

Venezuela Russia Anatoly Zhikharev La Orchila

shared by Argos Media on 16 Mar 09 - Cached
  • A Russian general said on Saturday Venezuela has offered the use of its La Orchila island airfield for Russian strategic bombers on long-range flights.
  • "If certain political decisions are taken, it is possible (for Russian bombers to use the base)," Interfax news agency quoted the head of Russian strategic aviation general-major Anatoly Zhikharev as saying.
  • Zhikharev also said Russian bombers would be prepared to use four or five airfields on Cuba if the political leadership of the two countries allowed the use of Cuban bases.
Pedro Gonçalves

BBC News - Why Azerbaijan is closer to Israel than Iran - 0 views

www.bbc.co.uk/...world-europe-19063885

Iran Azerbaijan Central Asia

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 12 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Israel and the secular government of Azerbaijan share the same goal: to check the spread of political Islam in general and Iran in particular.
  • Theirs is an alliance reinforced by hardware. In February 2012, Israel sold Azerbaijan $1.6bn (1.3bn euros) of sophisticated weapons systems.
  • Earlier this year, America's Foreign Policy magazine suggested the alliance between Israel and Azerbaijan went deeper than many had previously thought. The magazine reported that Israel had secured an agreement to use Azerbaijan's airfields in case it went ahead with a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
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  • Azerbaijan's population is mostly Shia Muslim. But its government is intensely secular.
  • "Azerbaijan naturally rejects the Iranian Islamic influence because it is perceived as a threat to the very nation state," says Leila Alieva, the Director of the independent Centre for National and International Studies in Baku. "On the other hand, Azerbaijan has always enjoyed a very good relationship with the Jewish community."
  • In May 2012, two Azerbaijani poets were detained in Iran on charges of espionage. Azerbaijan's government has since advised its citizens not to travel to the Islamic Republic.
  • The Azeri people once lived under the Persian Empire. In 1813, the Treaty of Gulistan after the first Russo-Persian war split the ethnic Azeri people into two.
  • Those in the north lived under Russian, then Soviet rule - and are now in independent Azerbaijan. Those in the south lived under the Persian Empire - and are now in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Today, around nine million ethnic Azeris live in Azerbaijan. But even more ethnic Azeris live across the border in Iran. Figures show that there are around 10-20 million Azeris in Iran - around a fifth of the country's population. Millions more Iranians have Azeri ancestry, including Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
  • Among many Azeris there is a desire for reunification.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Kyrgyz MPs vote to shut US base - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7898690.stm

Russia US Afghanistan Kyrgyzstan Manas Air Base Uzbekistan Robert Gates

shared by Argos Media on 03 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Kyrgyzstan's parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favour of closing a strategic US air base that supports US and Nato operations in Afghanistan.
  • Mr Bakiyev announced the closure plan earlier this month in Moscow, where Russia pledged $2bn (£1.4bn) in aid.
  • Bishkek denies any link between the move to shut the base and Moscow's aid. The president said earlier this month that the US refusal to pay an adequate rent was behind the decision.
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  • Thousands of US soldiers pass through the Manas base every month on their way in and out of Afghanistan.
  • It is also home to the large tanker aircraft that are used for in-air refuelling of fighter planes on combat missions, and it serves as a key supply hub.
  • For Russia, on the other hand, its closure would be a diplomatic victory as it seeks to reassert its influence in former Soviet republics, analysts say.
  • "I think that the Russians are trying to have it both ways with respect to Afghanistan in terms of Manas," US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday, on his way to Krakow to meet his Polish counterpart.
  • "On one hand you're making positive noises about working with us in Afghanistan and on the other hand you're working against us in terms of that airfield which is clearly important to us."
  • On Tuesday, the US commander for the Middle East and Central Asia, General David Petraeus, held talks in Uzbekistan, which has rail links with Afghanistan. The US has already reached deals with Russia and Kazakhstan to send non-military cargo to Afghanistan using their rail networks, but the supplies would have to go through Uzbekistan. The US used to have an air base in Uzbekistan that served troops operating in Afghanistan. But Uzbek authorities closed it in 2005 after criticism from the US and EU over a crackdown on a mass protest in the town of Andijan.
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