United States to abide by Montreux Convention

The ships that the U.S. is planning to send are not warships but naval cargo ships, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza said Wednesday.

Bryza said the naval cargo ships, for which they sought permission for passage through the Turkish straits, were within the tonnage range allowed in the Montreux Convention, adding the U.S. has not made an official request yet.Â

Unnamed U.S. officials were quoted saying last week that the two hospital ships likely to go -- the Comfort and the Mercy -- would take weeks to arrive and said that Turkey was "sluggish and unresponsive" in granting them permission to sail through the straits to the Black Sea.

 

The Turkish foreign ministry said Friday Ankara was cooperating with countries sending assistance to Georgia and "no request with the purpose of humanitarian aid or repatriation has been denied so far."

 

Without a reference to the US. ships, it said the transportation of assistance by sea was regulated under the terms of the 1936 Montreux Convention, which governs international traffic through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits.

 

Local media said the two ships tonnage exceeded the limits set by the convention, which restricts the passage of warships from the Dardanelles and Bosporus.

 

Photo: AP