Former FM Calls for Referendum on US Military Presence in Kyrgyzstan

TEHRAN (FNA)- Former Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Alikbek Dzhekshenkulov blasted the 10-year-long presence of the American forces in his country as a fruitless move for the Kyrgyz people, and called for a referendum on their continued mission in the Central Asian state.
"Ten years of the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan has yielded no fruit for the Kyrgyz people and has created abundant problems for them," Dzhekshenkulov told FNA on Wednesday.

Dzhekshenkulov, who is also the head of the National Congress of Kyrgyzstan's Political Parties, said the congress has called for a referendum to decide about the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan, and demanded his country's people to play their role in dealing with this issue.

He said people's partnership in such decisions will serve the country's national interests.

Kyrgyzstan, a mainly Muslim Central Asian nation of 5.3 million people, hosts US and Russian military air bases.

Despite all oppositions voiced by the Kyrgyz people and lawmakers to the continued presence of the American forces in their country, the US Transit Center at Manas airport in Kyrgyzstan announced that it will continue delivering cargo and military personnel to Afghanistan - within the same scope.

The new commander of the base, James Jacobson, who replaced Dwight Sones, who will now command the Travis airbase in California, the United States, made the remarks earlier this month.

The base's mission will continue on the same scale, Jacobson told journalists after the command handover ceremony.