US/IRAQ: The United Sates is planning to maintain a number of military bases in Iraq long after it has turned over the country to a new Iraqi government, giving Washington a permanent military foothold on the borders of Syria and Iran, writes Conor O'Clery, North America Editor, in New York
At the same time the US is likely to reduce its forces in Saudi Arabia, originally deployed to deter an Iraqi invasion and today a major source of anti-Americansm among Saudis.
A new long-term military relationship with the emerging government in Baghdad would grant the Pentagon access to bases in the country and project American influence into the heart of the Middle East, senior Bush administration officials told the New York Times.
As the US occupation force withdraws in the months ahead, and a new Iraqi government takes power, Pentagon officials expect to be able to use the bases in the event of some future crisis.
US military officials predicted maintaining up to four bases in Iraq - at Baghdad International Airport; at Tallil, near Nasiriya, in the south; in the western desert; and at the Bashur airfield in the north.
Col John Dobbins, commander of Tallil Forward Air Base in Iraq, said the US Air Force plan envisioned "probably two bases that will stay in Iraq for an amount of time". The report emphasises the limitations Washington is likely to try to impose on the foreign and defence policies of a new Iraqi government. Permanent military bases in Iraq, along with already established military sites in Afghanistan, would mean Iran would be virtually surrounded by US military influence.
"There will be some kind of a long-term defence relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan," one senior administration official is quoted as saying.
"The scope of that has yet to be defined whether it will be full-up operational bases, smaller forward operating bases or just plain access."
Lt Gen Michael Moseley, who directed the air war from a command centre near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, is expected to meet Saudi officials soon to discuss the US military presence, a senior military official said.
In Washington a team of energy engineers and technocrats, led by former Iraqi oil official Muhammad-Ali Zainy, is expected to travel to Iraq soon to take over the oil ministry.
Zainy (64) defected to the US in 1982 and is a naturalised American citizen. He is a member of the Iraq Reconstruction and Development Council, set up by the Pentagon to run Iraq pending the formation of an Iraqi administration.
Under US planning, government ministries in Baghdad will be run by US-appointed officials and turned over within six months to a temporary Iraqi interim authority.