U.S. aid flights to Georgia continue, Turkey eyed for sea mission

So far, 14 planes have been involved in the U.S. humanitarian effort, which cost more than $4.2 million, including medical supplies, antibiotics, tents, blankets, food and water, officials said, AFP reported late on Monday.

 

"Five flights arrived in (the Georgian capital) Tbilisi over the weekend carrying State Department-provided sleeping bags, blankets, burn bandages and first aid kits for distribution to internally displaced persons," State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters.Â

 

"Five additional flights are scheduled for today, Aug. 18, carrying an estimated 25,000 Defense Department-provided MREs (meals-ready-to-eat), as well as 3,000 hygiene kits provided by USAID and the office of foreign disaster assistance," he said.

 

Experts from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) went to Georgia on Friday to assess the needs of the country, joining a U.S. military assessment team that arrived the day before.

 

As Russia announced the start of a withdrawal of troops from Georgia on Monday, Washington said it was considering expanding the humanitarian effort using naval vessels.

 

"The State Department is looking at other options for sustaining the humanitarian relief operations and is looking at some naval vessels," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

 

"The State Department is working at the necessary agreements to achieve some passage in the straits of Turkey and things like that," he said.

 

General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that Washington's plans called for sending two U.S. Navy hospital ships to Georgia, among other assistance.

 

PASSAGE IN THE STRAITS

Unnamed U.S. officials were quoted saying last week that the two hospital ships likely to go -- the Comfort and the Mercy -- would take weeks to arrive and said that Turkey was "sluggish and unresponsive" in granting them permission to sail through the straits to the Black Sea.

 

"Surface vessels give us the capability to provide larger amounts of relief supplies and they also give you the platform to operate off aerial assets, vertical lifts, those types of things," Whitman said. He did not specify whether warships would be involved in any such missions.

 

The Turkish foreign ministry said Friday Ankara was cooperating with countries sending assistance to Georgia and "no request with the purpose of humanitarian aid or repatriation has been denied so far."

 

Without a reference to the US. ships, it said the transportation of assistance by sea was regulated under the terms of the 1936 Montreux Convention, which governs international traffic through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

 

Local media said the two ships tonnage exceeded the limits set by the convention, which restricts the passage of warships from the Dardanelles and Bosporus.

 

Leftist Cumhuriyet daily said talks to find a formula are underway between Ankara and Washington. The Turkish officials have proposed that the aid should be carried by civilian vessels instead of warships, the report added.

 

The hospital ships that U.S. would like to send to Georgia are categorized as military vessels.

 

Turkey's reluctance is caused by its aim to protect the balance between the West and Russia.

 

Ankara has not allowed any military vessels to pass into the Black Sea during the Cold War and is concerned that changing this policy would harm its relations with Russia given the fact that the new power balance emerges in the Caucasus.

 

It is obvious that a U.S. military vessel in the Black Sea would not be welcomed by Russia.