Afghanistan: Could Afghan Resupply Efforts Promote US-Iranian Cooperation?

The Defense Department's US Transportation Command is leaving no stone unturned in its efforts to find alternative routes of supply to Afghanistan. Documents obtained by EurasiaNet indicate that efforts to both ease and widen the flow of non-lethal materiel to NATO and US troops fighting the Taliban could potentially require cooperation between the United States and Iran.

The US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) solicited transit proposals in November of 2008 under the guise of a "market survey." One of the proposals received, submitted by a Turkish transport firm called Son Logistics, would use overland routes via Turkmenistan and Iran to deliver supplies to Afghanistan.

Behcet Kutlu, a Son Logistics executive, declined to comment on the company's proposal. But according to documentation submitted to USTRANSCOM, and obtained by EurasiaNet under the Freedom of Information Act, the company has lengthy experience in transporting cargo from the United States and Europe via Iran and Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.

"[Over the past] five-years we have already transported approximately 2,000 trucks and approximately 150 low-bed [trucks] to Hairatan, Kabul, and some other destinations," said the Son Logistics proposal submitted to USTRANSCOM. "Our office in Afghanistan can also help us to receive tax exemption letter[s] upon request and our depot and 25 professional people will ensure [the] transport [of] cargo to their final destinations safely and [in the] fastest way in Afghanistan."

Another proposal, submitted by Cross Ports Europe, a London-based transport company, envisioned an Iranian connection in a potential new supply chain. "All connection via Central Asia [Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan] to Hairatan and Tourghundi [in Afghanistan] can be arranged from Bandar Abbas [Iran] and Poti [Georgia] as well as via Russian ports."

"There are no other routes connecting Afghanistan to the rest of the world except ? via Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Karachi [Pakistan], Iran and air lift from Dubai," it adds.

US efforts to speed the flow of good into Afghanistan have already received a boost from a recently announced deal involving Korean Air and the government of Uzbekistan. Under that pact, Korean Air will develop a major air cargo hub near the Uzbek city of Navoi. The hub, according to Uzbek leaders, is already handling NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The Uzbek air option joins several recently opened overland routes via Uzbekistan and Tajikistan that are being used for resupply operations.

But it seems likely that if US President Barack Obama's surge strategy for Afghanistan is to be successful, more routes need to be opened. The main resupply routes through Pakistan have become increasingly vulnerable to Islamic militant attacks over the past year.

For the United States, Turkmenistan is perhaps the most attractive of untapped options. A source familiar with US efforts to expand the resupply network in Central Asia said American officials have been pressing President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov for needed permission, but so far the Turkmen leader has resisted. Becoming a major cog in the resupply machinery would endanger Turkmenistan's long-cultivated image as a neutral state, and thereby create political and economic problems for Ashgabat. Any perceived change in Turkmenistan's foreign policy orientation would "likely freak out" Moscow, the source told EurasiaNet.

There are several Turkmen transit blueprints waiting for implementation, if Berdymukhamedov ever gives the go-ahead.

The industrial and defense division of Daher, a French maritime and industrial transportation giant, told USTRANSCOM that non-military goods leaving Northern Europe could reach Afghanistan through its "preferred trucking route" via Turkmenistan should "transit rights become available."

"This option does not transit Russia and is the traditional line-haul route used by Daher to reach Afghanistan. The truck drivers we use know this route and, in particular, all border crossings, as well the local customs officials along the route. We have moved over 1,000 forty-foot containers as well as over 600 full truck loads of palletized cargo using the route," the company stated.

Daher said it would take 21 days for goods leaving France to reach Tashkent, Uzbekistan; 25 days to reach Dushanbe, Tajikistan, or Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; and a total of 30 days to reach Kabul in Afghanistan.

Given Turkmenistan's reluctance to participate, opening an Iran conduit is not as off-the-wall an idea as it would seem at first glance, the source said. The source noted that the interests of both the United States and Iran in Afghanistan "are close." Given this fact, the notion of a transit route should at least be explored.

Germany is already probing the feasibility of an Iranian resupply route. In April, the Iranian news agency IRNA quoted an unnamed German army source as saying German companies were in talks with their Iranian counterparts to agree new transport routes for non-military goods to Afghanistan. Both rail and road routes were reportedly under consideration.

"If a framework deal can be cut with them, why not?" the source said.