'Iran offered Obama for US materiel to be flown across Iran into Afghanistan...'(Offer faces Israeli Opposition!)

Richard Sale, via SST, here

"As the United States prepares to boost its military presence in Afghanistan, the Obama administration is using all means to secure alternative routes to supply U.S. and NATO forces as the security situation continues to deteriorate in Pakistan, according to U.S. officials who asked that they not be named.

So far Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan have all agreed to provide new supply routes to Afghanistan, all anxious to boost their international profiles, these sources said.....“These new routes reflect a necessary fallback position since Pakistan is becoming more and more unstable. We relied on the Paks for seven years, but routes became more and more insecure.”

Schaffer observed that using the Central Asian Republics could pose “overflight issues and other complications,” but these appear to be on the way to being solved..... The Turkmen air corridor would begin in Latvia and cross Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan through Tajikistan to avoid a bottleneck at Termez, according to McDermott....

CSIS Middle East expert Tony Cordesman said that the Obama administration has also been talking to Turkey to gain permission to have flights leave from Turkish bases, pass through Iranian or Turkmenistan airspace, or depart from Navroly or Karshi-Kanabad in Uzbekistan, transiting Turkmenistan......

But the Obama administration is determined to rely on civilian, commercial purchases and avoid militarizing the program, according to Middle East analyst Pat Clawson at Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The most controversial offer of help came from Iran which has agreed to let the United States Air Base at Al-Udeid in Qatar be the chief base from which U.S. materiel would be flown across Iran into Afghanistan, according to former senior DIA official Col. Pat Lang. The plan was presented to President Obama in early April by Secretary of Defense Bill Gates, Joint Chiefs of Staff head Adm. Mike Mullin, and transport command official, Gen. Duncan J. McNabb after numerous Iran-U.S. backdoor meetings. According to Lang and other U.S. officials, Al Udeid in Qatar would act as the hub from which U.S. aircraft could fly weapons, supplies and troops over the Persian Gulf, and continue through southern and central Iran to the U.S. base at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

There is also a sea route from Iran that could be used, former and serving U.S. officials said. The Revolutionary Guards main naval base is at Chah-Bahar, on the Arabian Sea near Iran’s northern border with Pakistan and is the main base for Tehran’s submarine fleet. The argument is that it would provide the ideal port of call for U.S. provisions to reach Afghanistan by sea. From the port, U.S. ships would travel north through Iran’s Sistan-v-Baluchstan route up to the Iran- Pakistan-Afghanistan border intersection where they would head east to Kandahar.

Lang said this plan was facing strong Israeli opposition..."