Posted on 03/21/2003 4:30:10 AM PST by JohnHuang2
Ethiopia Grants Airspace Rights to U.S.
.c The Associated Press
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - Ethiopia, one of two African nations publicly supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said Friday it had granted the United States access to its airspace and air bases.
Tekeda Alemu, minister of state for foreign affairs, said he did not know when or whether the United States would use the access. He said the United States, a longtime ally of Ethiopia, had requested the rights.
Ethiopia, a predominantly Christian nation on the Horn of Africa, has two main air bases - one outside the capital of Addis Ababa and the other in Dire Dawa, 200 miles to the east.
Dire Dawa is 180 miles south of Djibouti, where about 1,000 U.S. special forces and other U.S. Marine contingents operate the headquarters of a multinational anti-terrorism task force for the Horn of Africa.
Djibouti supports the war on terrorism but has made clear it does not support military action against Iraq without U.N. support.
The other African nation openly supporting the Iraq war is Eritrea, which fought a border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000.
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