A leading newspaper has claimed that Pakistan has allowed the US warplanesto use its airspace in support of their forces fighting the Taliban inAfghanistan.
“In a second major move in recent months to fix ties with the UnitedStates, Pakistan has granted permission for American warplanes to use itsairspace in support of forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan,” says areport published by South China Morning Post.
Revival of a 20-year-old arrangement saw Pakistani airspace used byAmerican warplanes on at least one occasion during the first week of May tobomb Taliban forces engaged in a major anti-government offensive in thesouthern Afghan province of Helmand, the Chinese newspaper cited renownedPakistani journalists recently revealing this information on social media.
According to the Chinese newspaper, the Pakistani journalists said thatresumption of US military air operations over the skies of Pakistan’ssparsely populated western Balochistan province came after a request fromWashington to restore access to the Shamsi airbase, 400km northwest of theChinese-operated Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.
The US was granted use of the airbase at Shamsi, and another at Jacobabadin southern Sindh province, by military ruler Pervez Musharraf after US-ledforces occupied Afghanistan in 2002.
Two high-ranking officials, speaking off the record in Islamabad, said theyunderstood that Washington had made a request for the use of Shamsiairbase, amid a sudden flurry of meetings between Pentagon leaders andPakistan’s powerful army chief of staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa thatstarted in March this year.
The Chinese newspaper said the issue was largely ignored by Pakistan’smainstream media and opposition politicians until David F. Helvey, USassistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific affairs, briefing theSenate armed forces committee on May 21, revealed that Pakistan hadresolved the US military’s logistical problem by allowing it “overflightand access to be able to support our military presence in Afghanistan”.
Read Top Stories
Helvey’s statement sparked speculation in Pakistan that a secret dealinvolving the lease of one or more airbases to the US might have beenstruck by Islamabad and Washington.
Responding to the media furore, ministry of foreign affairs spokesman ZahidHafeez Chaudhri on May 24 denied the story outright. “There is no USmilitary or airbase in Pakistan; nor is any such proposal envisaged. Anyspeculation on this account is baseless and irresponsible and should beavoided,” he said.
Unlike Helvey, who clearly indicated a recent understanding on US militaryflights over Pakistan had been reached, Chaudhri framed the use ofPakistan’s airspace as part of an arrangement ongoing since 2001, whenIslamabad agreed to provide the US with air and ground lines ofcommunication to landlocked Afghanistan. “No new agreement has been made inthis regard,” the spokesman for Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
Although Chaudhri did not specify, this implied that US ground forces inAfghanistan were being supported by warplanes based on a US Navy aircraftcarrier in the Arabian Sea.
Source:link