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| The Alliance |
| Tadjikistan won't allow attacks from its soil |
| 2001-09-17 |
Tajikistan will not allow Western countries to launch attacks on neighboring Afghanistan from its soil, its leaders said Sunday. "Reports in some media on the use of the Tajik territory by a third country to inflict strikes on military camps of the Taliban and international terrorists in Afghanistan are groundless," chief Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Sattarov told reporters. Last week, Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov indicated that his government might consider a U.S. request to provide air corridors for strikes on Afghanistan but only with approval from Russia and the international community. But Russia, which has thousands of troops in Tajikistan and wields considerable influence in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, made it clear last week that it would not approve a Western-led campaign from what Moscow considers its own backyard. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |