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ANKARA, April 30 (AFP) - 11h19 - Turkish
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has approved a
government decree allowing the United States to use
a key military base in the south of the country as a
logistical cargo hub for operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Sezer's approval late Friday brought to an end
months of negotiations between the two countries
amid bilateral tensions stemming from differences
over Iraq and constituted another step towards
improving strained ties.
The details of the deal were not disclosed, but US
officials here earlier said they had requested
permission to fly in "non-lethal" logistical
material to Incirlik air base in southern Adana on
civilian cargo planes and redistribute the goods to
Iraq and Afghanistan on military aircraft.
The cargo flights would not carry any troops,
ammunition, or personnel, but only supplies and
equipment to support forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The United States was also requesting blanket
clearance for planes landing and taking off from the
base, officials said.
The deal will not require the approval of the
Turkish parliament, as it will fall under the scope
of an earlier government decision allowing countries
involved in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to
use Turkish transportation facilities for logistical
and humanitarian purposes.
The Turkish parliament stunned Washington just
before the occupation of Iraq in March 2003 when it
denied US troops access to Turkish territory for a
planned invasion of Iraq from the north.
The traditionally close ties between the two NATO
allies -- also strained by US reluctance to take
military action against Turkish Kurd rebels in
northern Iraq and Ankara's concerns over too much
power for Iraqi Kurds in post-war Iraq -- have yet
to recover.
US and British warplanes used the Incirlik base to
patrol the no-fly zone over northern Iraq between
the end of the first Gulf War in 1991 and the
invasion of Iraq in 2003.
AFP
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