Israel Hails Turkey-NATO Agreement on Deploying
Missile Systems on Turkish Soil
Press TV, Mon Nov 22, 2010 6:56PM
Summit of NATO members' heads of state The Israeli Foreign
Ministry claims that Ankara has finally conceded to a NATO proposal for
deploying missile systems on Turkish soil
"against Iran's possible missile attack."
"Despite all
its effort to achieve unity and cooperation with the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Turkey finally accepted NATO's demand to install radar systems
against possible missile attacks from Iran," the website of Israeli
Foreign Ministry, Hamdami said on Sunday.
This is while Turkey
has repeatedly announced that it does not perceive Iran as a threat and
that any plans which single out Iran would be unacceptable.
"Mentioning one country, Iran... is wrong and will not happen. A
particular country will not be targeted.... We will definitely not
accept that," Turkish President Abdullah Gul had said earlier this
month.
The report on Hamdami added that "also, the summit of
heads of State of NATO members was able to bring Russia closer to the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization and take a big step in improving the
relation of European countries with the United States."
"Some of
the evaluations say by leading the summit of heads of state of NATO
members and through its effort before the summit, the United States has
achieve two accomplishments," it added.
"On the one hand it
seems that Russia has ceased its previous objections with deploying NATO
(and the US) missile system, and on the other hand, Turkey which had
announced it would not act against Iran even in the framework of NATO
finally surrendered to the demands of other NATO member states."
Turkey is the closest NATO member to Iran and deploying missile
systems in this country could be more effective that in a European
state, the article concluded.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu said in October that "we do not perceive any threat from any
neighbor countries and we do not think our neighbors form a threat to
NATO."
Following Turkey's demand, NATO Secretary General Anders
Fogh Rasmussen said last week that "it (the final plans of the missile
system) need not mention the names of any particular country."
Rasmussen said a total of 30 countries possess ballistic systems capable
of hitting Europe, adding that "this is reality; you don't need to
mention names."
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on
Saturday called the deployment of a NATO missile system in Turkey a
'game', saying "The era of adopting a military approach in the
interaction of governments and nations, and in resolving conflicts is
over."
Mottaki added that the missile system plan showed NATO
leaders "have been distanced from the realities of global relations."
MYA/CS/MMN
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