Waters heating up in Black Sea

[Raineyrocks]

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=151342&bolum=102

Waters heating up in Black Sea
USS McFaul anchors at Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi, as seen from the deck of a Georgian naval boat, on Sunday to deliver humanitarian aid.
With Russia not hiding its uneasiness over the presence of an increasing number of warships from NATO countries in the Black Sea, tension between Washington and Moscow is rising after the United States announced yesterday that it intends to deliver humanitarian aid to the beleaguered Georgian port city of Poti, which Russian troops still control through checkpoints on the city's outskirts.                                                                                       
The US announcement has been widely interpreted as a direct challenge to Russia. "At the request of the Georgian government, these ships will be delivering humanitarian aid to Poti," a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Tbilisi said. "The USS McFaul and another US ship will dock in Poti on Wednesday," the spokesperson added.

USS McFaul and USS Dallas have crossed through the Turkish Straits, the only sea outlet to the Black Sea, to deliver humanitarian aid to Georgia following its brief war with Russia. Another US Navy ship, the USS Taylor, passed through the straits on Monday within the scope of an earlier scheduled NATO military exercise, not as part of the humanitarian mission, Kathy Schalow, the spokesperson for the US Embassy in Ankara said yesterday.

The passage of US and NATO ships has been a delicate matter for Turkey, which insists that all ships passing through the straits must meet criteria set by the 1936 international Montreux Convention. Schalow said all US ships passing through the straits met Montreux standards.

Turkey is a member of NATO and has its own warships in the Black Sea that will take part in the NATO exercises. It has also authorized the passages of warships from NATO members Spain, Poland and Germany in recent days so that they can take part in the exercises. But Ankara is reluctant to antagonize Russia, the main natural gas supplier to the Turkish market and a major trade partner.

"The heightened activity of NATO ships in the Black Sea perplexes us," Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, said in Moscow. Nogovitsyn told reporters that 10 ships from NATO nations were currently in the Black Sea and that eight more are to join them soon. "The fact that there are Western warships in the Black Sea cannot but be a cause for concern. They include two US warships, one each from Spain and Poland and four from Turkey," he said.

But despite the Russian uneasiness over NATO and US aid ships in the Black Sea, ties between Turkey, which controls the straits, and Russia appear to have no problem at the moment. A Russian diplomat based in Ankara has reportedly said Russia appreciates Ankara's firmness with regard to the appropriate implementation of the international convention, which regulates passages through the Turkish Straits, during this recent process.

"Russia is not blaming Turkey for the situation in the Black Sea. The situation is not related to Turkey. We are asking why the US wants to deliver humanitarian aid via warships and why it doesn't prefer an airlift, which is shorter; we've been worried about this," yesterday's Radikal daily quoted the senior Ankara-based Russian diplomat as saying. "We find Turkey's manner compatible with the Montreux Convention and appreciate it," the same diplomat also said, while urging countries which are not party to the convention to comply with terms of the convention -- in an apparent reference to the United States.

Tension in the Black Sea

Many of the Russian forces that drove deep into Georgia after fighting broke out Aug. 7 in the separatist region of South Ossetia have pulled back, but hundreds at least are estimated to still be manning checkpoints that Russia calls "security zones" inside Georgia proper. Two of those checkpoints are near the edge of Poti, one of Georgia's most important Black Sea ports. The Russian military is also claiming the right to patrol in the city.

In a move that angered Russia, the United States sent missile destroyer USS McFaul to the southern Georgian port of Batumi, well away from the conflict zone, to deliver 34 tons of humanitarian aid on Sunday. The McFaul left Batumi on Tuesday but will remain in the Black Sea area, said Commander Scott Miller, a spokesman for the US Navy's 6th Fleet in Naples, Italy.

"We can confirm that US ship-borne humanitarian aid will be delivered to Poti tomorrow," US Embassy spokesperson Stephen Guice said on Tuesday, without elaborating which of the ships will dock at Poti.

In Moscow, the deputy head of the Russian military's general staff lashed out at the US naval operation. "We are worried" about aid, the way aid is delivered on warships, Nogovitsyn said. "This is devilish." He added, "This aid could be bought at any flea market."

While he did not link it with the US ships, Nogovitsyn said a unit of Russian naval ships was off Sukhumi -- the capital of another separatist Georgian region, Abkhazia, on the Black Sea north of Poti. He said the ships were observing the pullout of Russian troops from Georgia.

The United States says its ships are carrying humanitarian aid but suspicion persists in Russia that they are delivering military materiel clandestinely.

On Sunday, the US guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived with aid, including camp beds, bedding, tents and mobile kitchen units, US Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said. Separately, the US Coast Guard cutter Dallas was dispatched with aid, while a third vessel, the Navy command ship USS Mount Whitney, is being loaded in Italy with humanitarian supplies for Georgia, he said.

The NATO ships in the Black Sea are carrying more than 100 "Tomahawk" cruise missiles, with more than 50 onboard the USS McFaul alone that could hit ground targets, reported RIA news agency, quoting unnamed sources in Russian military intelligence.

27 August 2008, Wednesday
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES  ANKARA
        

[error]

Damnit, I thought this was going to be a global warming article that I could make fun of!

[Lloyd Danforth]

Fooled me too

[Raineyrocks]

Ha, ha!

[John Edward Mercier]

Would a couple dozen nukes warm the planet, or cool it?