Turkey and NATO on collision course over Iran?

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

"... Turkey's reluctance to consider Tehran a nuclear threat has put Ankara on a collision course with the US and European Nato members, as the alliance is negotiating the terms of a missile defence system aimed primarily at potential threats from Iran.

Ankara's condition for its endorsement of a Europe-wide missile defence shield, to be agreed by Nato leaders in Lisbon on 19 November, is for Iran not to be specifically mentioned as a threat.

"We do not see any threat from any of our neighbouring countries, whether it is Iran, Russia, Syria or others," Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said during the weekend as he was visiting China.

"I state quite clearly that Turkey will not be a frontal or flanking country [of the Nato missile shield] and we do not want to see again a zone of the Cold War and its psychology in our region," he added, noting that any Nato shield should be developed along these principles."We do not see any threat from any of our neighbouring countries, whether it is Iran, Russia, Syria or others," Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu said during the weekend as he was visiting China.

The line has irked the US, the main motor behind the shield, which is an upgraded version of a controversial plan by the previous George W. Bush administration. .....

Meanwhile, the Turkish Security Council last week approved changes in its national security document, called the "Red Book," reportedly removing Iran and Syria and adding Israel to the list of countries posing a "major threat.".... 

Adding to Ankara's reluctance in backing the Nato shield are America's close links to Israel. According to the daily newspaper Today's Zaman, Ankara has sought and reportedly received assurances from the US that intelligence gathered using the missile shield's sensors will not be shared with Israel. Under Washington's plans, the ballistic missile defence system would be rolled out in two phases. In the next two years, US Navy ships would be deployed in the Mediterranean. This would be followed by land-based interceptors in Romania and Poland and a high-tech radar in Bulgaria or Turkey by 2015....."

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