Agence France-Presse
November 14
he United States said Wednesday it was pressing Uzbekistan for the quick re-opening of a bridge on the Afghan border in order to speed delivery of urgently needed humanitarian aid to northern Afghanistan.
A senior official from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) noted that the first barge laden with assistance had crossed the Amu Darya River into Afghanistan earlier Wednesday from the Uzbek town of Termez but said the bridge link was much more important.
Nearly half of Afghanistan's monthly food aid requirement can be sent across the now-closed Friendship Bridge at Termez, said Bear McConnell, the director of USAID's Central Asia Task Force.
However, Tashkent has been adamant in refusing to re-open the bridge until the security situation along the road from the Termez bridge to the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif has stabilized with the withdrawal of Taliban forces.
"It is safe to say that the Uzbeks are ... nervous about flows into their borders," McConnell told reporters at the State Department, noting the presence of Islamic extremists throughout the area.
"They certainly don't want those guys to have unimpeded access to the north," he said.
A UN delegation is to make an inspection trip over the bridge to Mazar-i-Sharif this weekend, McConnell said, adding that he and USAID director Andrew Natsios were hopeful the team's report would convince the Uzbek government that the route was safe, "I think that assessment will inform the Uzbek government on their decision to, at long last, open that bridge," he said. "We're looking forward to a successful resolution of the bridge being opened."
Natsios, who is now in Central Asia, visited Uzbekistan earlier this week and was "very active in pressing the case for opening the famous bridge," McConnell said.
USAID and UN officials estimate that Afghan people require some 53,000 tonnes of food per month to stave off disaster brought on by drought and war as winter approaches.
And while the barge crossings are significant, McConnell said an estimated 25,000 tonnes of that requirement could be delivered over the Friendship Bridge.
The bridge, the only road link between the two countries, has two road lanes and a railway track.
Uzbekistan closed its border with Afghanistan four years ago when Taliban forces took control of Mazar-i-Sharif and has refused to reopen the road link, citing security concerns.