Uzbek Radio first programme
August 29

US troops will be in the region for as long as necessary, Uzbek President Islam Karimov has told journalists. During a break in the ninth session of the Supreme Assembly of the Republic of Uzbekistan of the second convocation, which started on 29 August and was broadcast on Uzbek radio the same day, a BBC correspondent asked him how much longer the US forces were going to stay in the region. Answering this question, Karimov said the following:

"They came here to carry out their mission and function which they had made known to the entire world, that is, to create a coalition the main aim of which is to destroy the machine of terrorism. And I want to say once again that here the interests of both the USA and Uzbekistan, which was suffering, coincide. Ordinary people say that they used to wake up in the morning and did not know what news radio or television would broadcast, who else had made an incursion or whether they would be able to sleep quietly or not. In this situation the Americans came and only they, thanks to their military power, I am saying this with full responsibility, only they played the leading role here. Only their operations made it possible to liquidate camps and bases and the machine of the Taleban, to deal a blow and break the backbone of terrorist organizations and gangs," the president said.

"In fact the USA played a major part in the destruction of the Taleban and the machine of terrorism. As a result, they freed Uzbekistan from a possible military and ideological aggression," the president said.

"My opinion is that they will be here for as long as it takes to ensure a guarantee," he said [as received].

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