Russia rules out joint operation with U.S.

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, SEPT. 14. Russia has ruled out taking part in likely U.S. retaliatory strikes for the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington and has called for a joint international response to the threat of terrorism.

Russia's top military officials on Friday discounted any joint military operation with the U.S. against terrorist bases in Afghanistan or the use of bases in ex-Soviet Central Asian States for such attacks. The Armed Forces' Chief of Staff, Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, said the Russian defence establishment were not discussing any joint reprisal action against suspected terrorists. ``The United States has armed forces powerful enough to handle the task by themselves,'' the Interfax news agency quoted Gen. Kvashnin as saying.

The Russian Defence Minister, Mr. Sergei Ivanov, for his part discounted the use of bases in the ex-Soviet Central Asian States by NATO for military strikes against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. ``I don't see any basis for even hypothetical speculation on the possibility of launching any NATO military operations in the territory of Central Asian countries which are members of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States),'' Mr. Ivanov said in televised remarks in response to a report in the U.S. media that Russia had offered its bases in Tajikistan for strikes against Osama Bin Laden.

At the same time, Moscow has offered Washington help in tracking down the suspected terrorists. The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Gen. Sergei Lebedev, said in an interview his service was working closely with agencies in the United States, Europe and West Asia to prevent new terror attacks. The FSB Federal Security Service, the ex-KGB counter- espionage agency, said it had launched its own investigation and promised to pass on any information ``immediately'' to its U.S. counterpart, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. FSB officials told the news agency they suspected the Islamist terrorist group, Jamaat al-Islami, was behind both the attacks on New York and Washington, and a series of 1999 bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Igor Ivanov, made it clear Russia could approve of possible U.S. retaliatory attacks if they were co-ordinated with Moscow. ``Russia's reaction (to likely U.S. strikes) will be supportive in as far as our close and effective interaction is concerned,'' Mr. Ivanov said in an interview on Friday. He urged Washington to undertake an international response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, saying unilateral action would not solve the long- term threat of international terrorism.

``International terrorism has challenged not just the Americans, but all civilised mankind. Therefore, we believe there must be a united response to this challenge,'' the Russian Foreign Minister said.

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