US yet to ask Turkey to let hospital ships through: embassy

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

ANKARA (AFP) — Washington has made no formal request from Ankara to allow two US hospital ships to sail through the Turkish Straits to Georgia, a US diplomat said Saturday, following reports that Turkey was dragging its feet on making a decision.

"The United States is considering a lot of actions" to help Georgia amid its conflict with Russia over South Ossetia, the spokeswoman of the US embassy in Ankara, Kathy Schallow, told AFP.

"But as far as I know, we have not made a formal decision about sending those two ships," she said, adding that "a formal request" for their passage to the Black Sea via the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits was not made either.

The Turkish foreign ministry said Ankara was cooperating with countries sending assistance to Georgia...