Navy News, opinions, editorials, news from Iraq, photos, reports - Navy Times

Destroyer continues aid mission in Georgia

ABOARD THE DESTROYER MCFAUL — The U.S. dispatched a military ship bearing aid to a Georgian port city still patrolled by Russian troops.

Angering Russia, the U.S. sent the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer McFaul to the southern Georgian port of Batumi, well away from the conflict zone, to deliver 34 tons of humanitarian aid on Sunday. The McFaul left Batumi on Tuesday but would remain in the Black Sea area, said Cmdr. Scott Miller, a spokesman for the Navy’s 6th Fleet in Naples, Italy. The Coast Guard cutter Dallas was headed for Georgia with a shipment of aid. It may try to enter Poti.

Meanwhile, the U.S. said Russia is behaving “appallingly” by granting formal diplomatic recognition Tuesday to two breakaway Georgian provinces at the center of this month’s conflict.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia has no business declaring the provinces independent of U.S.-backed Georgia while the United Nations Security Council on which Russia sits has declared that the regions are part of Georgia.

“I think it is regrettable,” Rice said at a news conference in Ramallah, West Bank, adding that the U.S. regards Abkhazia and South Ossetia as “part of the internationally recognized borders of Georgia” and will use its veto power in the Security Council to block any Russian attempt change their status.

“We’re not trying to escalate anything,” said State Department spokesman Robert Wood in response to a question about whether disagreement between the West and Russia would jeopardize international cooperation. But, he added, “We obviously can’t allow what Russia’s done to go without there being some consequences.”

He would not provide details about possible punishment the U.S. is considering.

Ahead of the McFaul’s arrival Sunday, a top Russian general suggested that the presence of U.S. and other NATO ships in the Black Sea would worsen tensions already at a post-Cold War low.

“I don’t think such a buildup will foster the stabilization of the atmosphere in the region,” Russia’s ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn as saying Saturday.

The McFaul, loaded with some 80 pallets containing about 55 tons of humanitarian aid, is the first of five American ships scheduled to arrive this week, according to the U.S. Embassy. The aid includes baby food, diapers, bottled water, and milk.

The commander of the five-ship U.S. task force, Navy Capt. John Moore, downplayed the significance of a destroyer bringing aid.

“We really are here on a humanitarian mission,” he said.

The McFaul is also outfitted with an array of weaponry, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads, and a sophisticated radar system. For security reasons, the Navy does not say if ships are carrying nuclear weapons, but they usually do not.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Georgia forced Russia’s hand by trying to reassert control by force in the smaller of the two regions, South Ossetia, on Aug. 7. The self-governing regions seek independence from Georgia and eventual annexation to Russia. Russia has given Russian passports to many non-Georgians living in the provinces.

Russian tanks and troops drove deep into undisputed Georgian territory in a five-day war that Moscow saw as a justified response to a military threat in its backyard and the West viewed as a repeat of Soviet-style intervention.

The U.S. has said Russia is not fully complying with a cease-fire signed more than a week ago. Rice noted that the cease-fire calls for international input to settle the future of the two breakaway regions.

Russian forces have staked out positions beyond the de facto borders of the separatist regions, which the U.S. and other western nations call a cease-fire violation.