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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...

Thirty governments have agreed to be named in public as supporters of a U.S. invasion of Iraq, and about 15 others are cooperating behind the scenes, the State Department said on Tuesday. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the basic criterion for inclusion of the published list was that the countries wanted to be publicly associated with the idea that Iraq has to be disarmed now. They are not necessarily providing any assistance to the U.S. war effort. The only allies known to be contributing offensive military forces are Britain and Australia, but the Danish government offered on Tuesday to...

In a region packed with squeamish U.S. allies, one nation is working overtime to be part of Washington's plans for war against Iraq. Eritrea, a tiny desert nation across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia, has even hired a Washington lobbying firm to press its invitation to American troops. "Eritrea provides the United States with a strategic advantage and hospitable atmosphere that cannot be matched in the region," says the Washington lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig LLP, which was hired by Eritrea in May for an estimated $50,000 a month. In a press release titled "Why Not Eritrea?" that reads somewhat...

SOUDA BAY, Crete - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday left open the possibility of expanding the new U.S. military presence in the Horn of Africa, where hundreds of American troops are based as part of a land, sea and air campaign to root out al-Qaida terrorists. In an interview en route to his first visit to the Horn of Africa since taking office, Rumsfeld said some countries in that unstable region had offered the use of military facilities, but that so far the United States had only agreed to use Camp Le Monier in the desert hinterland of...

Sudan's ambassador to Ethiopia said war could break out between his country and neighbouring Eritrea, whose president he described as "unpredictable". "When we are dealing with somebody like (Eritrean President) Issaias Afeworki, anything is to be expected," said Ambassador Osman El-Sayed in an interview published in Wednesday's edition of 'The Reporter'. Tensions have been heightened between Sudan and Eritrea since Khartoum accused Asmara of being behind an offensive in early October by rebels in the east of the country, charges Asmara denied. "We have information that he (Afeworki) has already started making trenches in areas bordering Sudan," El-Sayed said Wednesday....

The Eritrean Government has reacted furiously to criticism from the US State Department. The US State Department called on the Eritrean Government to release two local employees of the US embassy in Eritrea who have been in detention since last year; Ali Alamin and Kiflom Gebremichael. It also urged the Eritrean Government to grant them an open and fair trail and "respect fundamental human rights." The Eritrean Foreign Ministry released a statement which said it totally rejected the state department's position, and called on it to refrain from unwarranted intervention. But the statement also contains some surprises, with the government...

TEHRAN -- Washington recently sent a confidential message to Tehran to ascertain Iran's stance on the U.S. plan to attack Iraq, which is being discussed by high-ranking Iranian officials, a Tehran-based diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity told the TEHRAN TIMES. No decision has been taken about the message and no answer has yet been given to Washington, he said. The Americans have not offered any specific proposal, he said, adding that there is no reference to what the U.S. would give Iran for its cooperation. Washington has announced that the Iraqi regime must abide by UN resolutions and...

In Donald Rumsfeld's current swing thru the Mideast, the Secretary of Defense has been attempting to line up allies in order to pave the way for a hopefully imminent attack of Iraq. One nation in the region that doesn't need its arm twisted is one that itself has been the victim of terrorism: Eritrea, the half-Muslim, half-Christian coastal country on the Red Sea that won its freedom from Ethiopia after a 30-year armed struggle. Located just across the Red Sea from Saudi Arabia and Yemen, many in the Pentagon eye Eritrea as a valuable strategic ally in the Mideast,...

The U.S. Defense Department is considering establishing a military base in Eritrea. With newly established bases in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Pakistan, along with preexisting bases in Greece and Turkey, Eritrea would be the final geographical link in the administration of President George W. Bush strategy to create a military perimeter around the Middle East. Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of U.S. Central Command, has traveled to the country at least four times since Sept. 11 in an effort to work out details for such a plan. Girma Asmerom, the Eritrean ambassador to the United States, has confirmed that Franks...

Pentagon - The Pentagon has confirmed 30 U.S. military personnel have been dispatched to Yemen to begin training forces there in counter- terrorism tactics. But defense officials may be contemplating an even more extensive military relationship with another strategically-positioned Red Sea state, Eritrea. Top Pentagon African affairs official Michael Westphal acknowledges closer military links between the United States and Eritrea would be beneficial. Still, in a VOA interview, Mr. Westphal is careful to say no concrete decisions have been made about the direction of any future defense cooperation with the small Red Sea country, regarded by military officials as a...