"General Icerider" Peter said "Admiral Rankin." Rhyth and
Admiral William Rankin stood up and walked to nearest wall monitor, the pair had been making notes and holding a whispered conversation while the others had spoken, being able to hear everything from everyone's point of view would enable appropriate tweaking of what Achkaerin would do "For the benefit of information Admiral Rankin is the Judge Advocate General of the Achkaerinese Military which essentially makes him the top lawyer in the Achkaerinese Armed Forces."
"It is an honour to address such distinguished people. Before we address the matter of probable Achkaerinese involvement in Clysperis on a specific level, there's a more wide ranging proposition we wish to outline." William said, the monitor now showed an image of the area around Clysperis:
"As you can see we've marked out the boundaries of respective EEZ's." William said "We've done so because in Achkaerin's view action in country is greatly assisted by taking action to contain the threat and then starve the rebels supplies. This is why we invited representatives from other local nations here because we're going to make a request." he paused and then handed out
copies of a Royal Seleucid news article "Containment of the threat is to a large extent achieved through the prompt actions of Vanora, Safraen and now Abuqiya in fortifying their borders with Clysperis to prevent the rebellion spreading outside of Clysperis borders, this news article includes announcement by King Heydar that Royal Seleucid is effectively denying passage through air and water to nations supporting the so called Confederation, that move essentially means that one route into Clysperis is shut off leaving only the sea route.
To get from Southern Ardia any New Derusmian vessel will have to go either the long way round the top of Aranye or they'll have to go through the Krimeon, Mhorish, Illumic Channel and then across the Northern Ocean. Both trips are huge in distance terms and given the logistics of refuelling due to operational range of vessels lengthy in terms of time as well, geography is in this instance our ally. We are not proposing any nation here gets directly involved in the fighting but we are asking that the ambassadors sat around this table ask their governments to consider doing as Royal Seleucid have done and deny nations supporting the so called Confederation access to airspace, passage through waters and we would ask that denial of harbour and port calls be added to that, it isn't in any of our interests to create the premise for a prolonged conflict in Clysperis so please let's not create that potential by allowing those who would destabilise a legitimate government safety in our region. If anyone has questions as to the legality of such a move then I refer you to the article of the Fair Seas Concordat that deals with Innocent Passage, it is clear from that article that when intent implies military loading, unloading, deployment etc that passage can be considered to not be innocent and therefore the article does not apply."
"On that basis we recommend to Pharaoh Akasha that the Clysperi Navy be mobilized to enforce a stop and search protocol within Clysperis's EEZ, search any vessel that you don't think should be there." Rhyth said "Achkaerin will position naval assets to assist in that should Clysperis require it, you will also see a white circle on the image behind me, that is where we intend to deploy a small group of naval vessels to work in tandem with the proposed stop and search protocol to identify incoming vessels.
Containing and starving the threat is finalized with the establishment of a No Fly Zone, this is not that surprising as it is a standard measure to this situation, we have the advantage in the skies we should consolidate it and make use of it. As such Achkaerin will contribute assets to establish that zone, patrol it and support ground troops. We do however note that for such a zone to be effective Clysperis will need to ground all usual air traffic within Clysperi airspace. As for how aircraft entering the zone will be dealt with that will involve a graduated response of firstly verbal challenges and then proceeding all the way up to shooting down aircraft that violate the zone. Both these measures make it important for us to establish a clear means of communication so that each of us knows what we have in play, what they're doing and where they are because the last thing I want is for a plane claiming to be from another nation to be shot down because we weren't told that it was going to be there. By coordination of land, sea and air we can ensure this situation doesn't spread and we can make it virtually impossible for anyone to get aid to the Confederation."
"At this point I'd like to suggest that those of you who are ambassadors from other nations not contributing military aid join my Minister for the Diplomatic Office in one of the reception rooms, I'm sure Minister Holmes is capable of answering any questions you may have." Peter said, he waited for those ambassadors from Vanora, Abydos, Safraen and Lemenia to leave with Cheryl before turning back to Rhyth "General continue please."
"In terms of the ground situation, my understanding of the current situation is that the cities of Ashsupes, Nemphis, Aktudet and Medde are under threat in the south and in the midlands the cities of Sathemat and Kispos are most at risk, the first priority therefore is to evacuate civilians from those cities, based on what I have heard I believe we all have the assets to effect that. Now evacuation of civilians does not mean surrendering the cities to the Confederation on the contrary it means that we take control of the terms of battle, terrorists prefer fighting in areas where the professional soldier has more to worry about, so we remove the civilians safely and level up the battlefield, Achkaerin is prepared to commit troops to evacuating these cities and then holding them against the so called Confederation though we will given what has been said here focus on the southern cities and Sathemat to keep the corridor between north and south open. Achkaerin will also commit part of the Armoured Corp to the ground effort. All told on ground troops I estimate approximately in the region of 4000-5000 troops." Rhyth said
"Intelligence wise it will be important that we all share what we know with each other so that must form part of how we operate. In terms of how Achkaerin will work on the intelligence front we will likely work in the same manner as we did during the Marseilles crisis, use intelligence to identify persons of interest, send in special forces to get hold of them and then have them interrogated for further information which can then be acted on, afterwards we then have those we have in custody face trial for their crimes."
Rhyth and William sat back down and Peter turned his attention to Akasha, Asef, Saejima and Magnus, the room was silent.
"It's important to all of us for reasons that General Icerider has explained that though we may be unlikely allies in this that we at least behave as allies would expect each other to in a situation like this. As such I have an initial proposal in terms of a framework that can underpin this most unlikely of alliances." he put a piece of paper on the table that he'd been writing out as he'd listened to the conversation
The nations of the Holy Empire of Achkaerin, Kingdom of Clysperis, Imperium of Dragovah, Neo Quwye Federation and Empire of Tamora linked together in the cause of opposing and combating the so called Confederation of Clysperis hereby agree to the following:
1) That each of the nations named in the preamble shall have available a representative of their Armed Forces and Intelligence Communities in (location). These representatives shall keep each other informed of troop movements, intelligence and other matters as required.
2) The nations agree to coordinate their efforts against the co called Confederation.
3) The nations agree to abide by the terms of the Uppsalla Convention for this conflict. Defining the so called Confederation as a Terrorist organisation as per article 1.5 of the Convention.
4) The nations agree to the establishment of a No Fly Zone over Clysperis, this zone shall operate a graduated response challenge protocol that denies entry into Clysperis Air Space to all uncleared aircraft. If an aircraft ignores the initial verbal challenge, other measures are to be taken to force the trespassing aircraft to depart restricted air space. The shooting down of a trespassing aircraft is a final resort.
5) The nations agree that there shall be in Clysperi waters (as defined by the Fair Seas Concordat) a stop and search operation mounted by the Clysperi Navy and others as necessary, all uncleared vessels entering Clysperi waters shall be subject to this operation regardless of the flag they fly.
6) The nations agree that so called President Nekhtou and other senior leadership figures within the so called Confederation should, where possible, be taken alive so they can answer for their crimes.
"I'm open to suggestions for changes and any questions or we can simply agree this now, time is of the essence yes but it is important also that we have a working framework that we are all happy with." Peter finished