Ankara: Nato member states have agreed to supply Turkey with a sophisticated Patriot missile defence system to counter a potential threat from Syria and talks on its deployment are in the final stage, Turkey’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
“The countries who supply Nato with Patriot systems are known, we have reached an agreement with those countries. The official application will be completed as soon as possible,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference.
“Intensive work is underway and the talks have reached the final stage.” He added: “The formal negotiations will be concluded at the shortest time possible. They won’t last much longer.”
Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday in Brussels that Nato would consider Turkey’s request as a matter of urgency. He said Nato has drawn up plans to defend Turkey.
Nato installed anti-aircraft batteries in Turkey during the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars. They were never used and later removed. Within the alliance, only the United States, Germany and the Netherlands have Patriots in their arsenals. Rasmussen noted that the deployment of the US-built Patriots would not mean imposing a no-fly zone over Syrian territory, a key demand of Syrian opposition groups. “If we are to deploy Patriot missiles it would be purely a defensive measure to defend and protect Turkey,” he said. He had also said it was “premature” to comment on German reports that Berlin planned to send 170 soldiers to Turkey to man the missiles but added that “Turkey can count on allied solidarity”.
Turkey’s air defences consist mostly of short-range Rapier and Stinger systems, and US-made Hawk low-to-medium-altitude missiles, according to US media report. Ankara has been looking to acquire a new high-altitude defence system to replace its Cold War-era Nike-Hercules batteries.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he feared that the militarisation of the conflict in Syria could turn the country into a “regional battleground.”
“We are deeply concerned about the continued militarisation of the conflict, horrendous violations of human rights and the risk of Syria turning into a regional battleground as the violence intensifies,” Ban told reporters during a visit to Cairo.
He urged the international community to support the efforts of UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi for “an inclusive Syrian led political transition that will address the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people.”
As the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, Ban also appealed to countries “to generously contribute more to our humanitarian programmes inside Syria and in the region and to assist Syria’s neighbours in dealing with the refugee crisis.”
The Syrian conflict, which has raged since March 2011, has killed over 39,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Ban was in Cairo as part of a regional visit focused on the conflict in the Gaza Strip. He will also travel to Israel and the West Bank.
Gulfnews
WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — A top Turkish official has claimed that Israel is committing acts of terrorism by bombing Hamas targets in Gaza.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told the Eurasian Islamic Council conference in Istanbul that the Jewish state is systematically mass-killing Muslims.
“Those who associate Islam with terrorism close their eyes in the face of mass killing of Muslims, turn their heads from the massacre of children in Gaza,” Erdogan said, according to Reuters. “For this reason, I say that Israel is a terrorist state, and its acts are terrorist acts.”
The conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated last Wednesday after an Israeli airstrike killed the terror group’s military commander, Ahmed Jabari.
CBS News reports 87 Palestinians, 50 of them civilians, have been killed in the six-day conflict so far.
Hamas is demanding Israel stop its five-year blockade of the Gaza Strip in order to get a cease-fire deal done.
The White House says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called President Barack Obama Friday to provide an update on the situation. Netanyahu expressed appreciation to Obama and the American people for U.S. investment in the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defense system, which has been used to defend Israel against rocket attacks from Gaza, saving many Israeli lives, the White House said.
Obama reiterated U.S. support for Israel’s right to self-defense and discussed possible ways to scale back the conflict, the White House said. It did not offer specifics.
Separately, Obama called Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Friday and praised Egypt’s efforts to ease tensions in the region, the White House said. Obama expressed hope that Egypt’s efforts would be successful, officials said.
In both calls, Obama expressed regret for the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives and underscored the importance of resolving the situation as quickly as possible.
Obama also spoke with the Israeli and Egyptian leaders last Wednesday.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Friday during Panetta’s flight from Bangkok to San Francisco as he returned to the U.S. from an Asia-Pacific tour, a senior Pentagon official said. In their second phone conversation this week, Barak briefed Panetta on the situation with Gaza and the prospects for de-escalation of the violence.
Militant groups have staged rocket attacks against Israel, which has responded by assassinating the military chief of the ruling Hamas militant group and conducting dozens of airstrikes on suspected rocket-launching sites and other Hamas targets in Gaza.
CBS
The IDF is looking into the possibility that rockets which exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council Friday evening were fired fromEgypt's Sinai Peninsula, army official said.
If the suspicions prove true, the attack would mark the second time in two days that rockets were fired toward Israel from Sinai. On Wednesday, shortly before the IDF killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari in Gaza and launched Operation Pillar of Defense, four rockets exploded in an Israeli community located near the Egyptian border. Israel suspects that they were fired from Sinai. There were no reports of injury or damage in the attack. The Color Red siren, which alerts residents of incoming projectiles, was not sounded.
Egyptian newspaper Al-Shorouk reported Friday that the Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC) in the Environs of Jerusalem, an al Qaeda-linked group in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, claimed responsibility for the launching of five rockets. These were apparently the rockets that were fired at Israel on Wednesday.
The report said the rockets were launched from the northern part of Sinai, adding that a video clip shows that the rockets were fired from 107-millimeter rocket launchers, similar to the ones being used by Palestinian terror groups in Gaza. Al-Shorouk further reported that the rockets "hit their targets."
The past three years have seen a number of rocket attacks emanating from Sinai, but most of those attacks have targeted Eilat, Israel's southernmost city. The Sinai Peninsula has become a hotbed of terror activity and lawlessness since the ouster of Egypt's former president Hosni Mubarak. Terror groups in the region have carried out several attacks against Israeli targets.
In August 2011 eight Israelis were killed in a terror attack on Route 12 leading to Eilat, and in August of this year terrorists in Sinai murdered 15 Egyptian policemen and broke through Israel's border fence with a stolen armored carrier.
Ynet News
An unidentified man injured the US embassy guard in Tel Aviv with an axe and knife Tuesday, Nov. 20. He was captured.
Three amphibious warships with 2,500 Marines aboard back to the eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby off Israel’s shore in case they are needed to evacuate American citizens. The USS Iwo Jima, the USS New York and the USS Gunston Hall, were sailing west of Gibraltar on their way to back to Norfolk, Virginia, when they were turned around.
DEBKAfile: The United States have never before evacuated American citizens from Israel. The US notice does not say whether a possible evacuation would include the US forces posted in American bases in Israel. A mass evacuation would entail a Marine shore landing in order to lead the evacuees to the amphibious craft.
The Iwo Jima is a helicopter carrier, while the New York, one of the newest vessels of its kind in the US Navy, is a primary class of amphibious transport dock.
Although a decision to evacuate nationals was defined in the CNN report as a “remote contingency,” our sources stress that it is extreme enough to be taken only when a war situation is envisaged capable of endangering Americans.
This step negates the expectation articulated widely in Israel Monday, Nov. 19, that a ceasefire with the Hamas is within reach. It rather indicates that Washington sees the situation surrounding the Gaza Strip in a far different light, more like a situation holding the threat of a general conflagration beyond the confines of the Israel-Hamas contest in Gaza.
According to the same report, the US military also maintains three to four ships off the coast of Israel that are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. That deployment has stretched for some months in the face of a potential ballistic threat from Iran.
DEBKAfile
Egypt’s newly elected Patriarch of Alexandria, Pope Tawadros II, has announced that he will maintain the policy of his predecessor Pope Shenouda III of discouraging Coptic worshippers from visiting Jerusalem until it is liberated. He said that Christians and Muslims will visit Jerusalem together, after its liberation.
The issue of Egyptian Copts visiting Occupied Jerusalem has been a continuous challenge for the Orthodox Coptic Pope over the years. Following Pope Shenouda’s death in March, the issue has been at the forefront of the challenges facing his successor alongside other issues arising from the new political situation in post-Mubarak Egypt.
When asked about the political developments, Pope Tawadros insisted that the Coptic Church does not fear Islamist rule, noting that the Church is proud of Egypt’s first democratically-elected civilian president. He expressed his hope that President Morsi will lead the country through a real renaissance so that Egyptians feel the benefits on the ground and not just in theory.
The Pope said that what Egypt’s Copts demand is real citizenship, adding that they are being marginalised. He didn’t rule out that the Church, even though it is primarily a spiritual institution, may adopt a stance on the presidency.
Qudsmedia
The United Kingdom has recognized the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, British Foreign Minister William Hague said on Tuesday in parliament.
France recognized the Syrian Opposition in a similar way on November 14, a move Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister denounced as "immoral."
The European Union's ministerial council for foreign affairs said on Monday it had recognized the opposition coalition as a legal representative of the interests of the Syrian people but held back from extending it diplomatic recognition, leaving that to be decided by individual EU member states.
The coalition, formed following an opposition conference in Qatar earlier this month, claims to represent 80 percent of all opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Some hardline Islamist rebels fighting in the northern city of Aleppo stated earlier this week they do not recognize the National Coalition opposition leadership.
RIANovosti
