- LISBON, Sept 14 (AFP) - The
United States has reserved a total of 20 air corridors across the Atlantic
Ocean in the past 24 hours, some of them with access to Portugal's Lajes
airbase on the Azores islands where an US air force unit is stationed,
the Portuguese weekly Expresso reported Saturday.
-
- Quoting air controllers in the Azores, Expresso said
that the United States normally only has four corridors.
-
- "There can only be one reason for this step, the
transport of large quantities of light materiel that can only be transported
by plane, as well as military personnel, to the Gulf region," said
the weekly citing military experts.
-
- The report came as a top US general said the commander
of US forces in the Gulf was likely to move his headquarters to the region
from Florida "to be ready for action" amid US efforts to build
a common front at the United Nations to force Iraq to disarm on a short
deadline or face possibly devastating consequences.
-
- The US Central Command announced earlier this week that
a deployable headquarters and 600 staff officers will move from its Tampa
headquarters to an air base in Qatar for a one week "exercise"
some time in November.
-
- Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz told
Expresso that "officially the United States has not yet asked Portugal
to use the base at Lajes".
-
- The minister also said he did not know about any additional
reservation by the United States of air corridors across the Atlantic.
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