U.S. senators said yesterday that the Uzbek government’s harsh response to an uprising will affect relations with Washington, adding their voices to calls for the Central Asian nation’s leadership to allow an international investigation into the bloodshed.

The visit by Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire increased U.S. pressure on Uzbekistan to drop its resistance to an international probe amid widely varying death tolls from the violence.

The former Soviet republic is a U.S. ally in the war on terror and hosts an American military base for operations in neighboring Afghanistan.

“Without an international investigation, it will be very difficult to move forward and have the relationship that we would like to have,” Mr. Graham said at a press conference. ~The Washington Times