Syria to gain access to US, Israeli military technology
There's more to Syrian-Turkish military cooperation than ground exercises. On Monday, Syria's SANA news agency reported that Syria and Turkey have signed a military cooperation agreement "in the fields of defense industries and the exchange of technical and scientific information."This has gotten the Israelis quite nervous (yes, I am sole-sourcing DEBKA, but what they're reporting in my quote seems obvious):
DEBKAfile's military sources report that the signing and the exercise are major landmarks on the shrinking road of military and trading ties between Turkey and Israel. In 2009, Ankara pared exchanges down to $2.2 billion in 2009 and expanded its trade with Syria to $2.6 billion.In addition, Haaretz reported last week that Syria and Turkey may cooperate on a joint nuclear energy project.
Israel is now in a hurry to slash its military exchanges with Turkey to prevent the leakage of military secrets to an avowed Arab enemy.
Ankara is furthermore defaulting on payments for military purchases and other contracts. It has piled up a debt of several million dollars to Israel's military and air industries, in payment for a $5 billion deal to build a Mark 3 Chariot plant in Turkey. Production of 1,000 Israeli tanks, to have been Turkey's main theater tank, should have begun in early 2009.
Construction is now halted.
Israel will also discontinue sales of its world-class unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and sharply reduce its military ties with Turkey which go back to the 1960s.
But Israel is not the only country that has sold sophisticated military equipment to the Turks in reliance upon Turkey's status as a NATO member and as a 'secular' Muslim country. As some of you may recall, Turkey is also a member of the joint strike force that is developing the American F-35 stealth-enabled fighter jet. That means that Syria will gain access to American technology in addition to gaining access to Israeli technology - all without having given the West a single thing on its wish list.
Thus far, there has been no reaction from the United States to news of the Turkish-Syrian exercise. But we all know the United States is in good hands. What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:47 AM
4 Comments:
You said that "there has been no reaction from the United States to news of the Turkish-Syrian exercise." But another Debka article, which I can surmise to be accurate, says that Washington gave its approval to the exercise: http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=6045 Clinton gave the nod while in Lebanon - the Syrian-Iranian satellite quasi-state.
Well, If I am correct which I think I am, there are some 500+ soviet military advisors in Syria as well as 500+ Iranian military advisors in Syria. So we are going to share technology with not only the Syrians but the Iranians and the Soviets? WOW! Talk about slitting our own rists.
Obama truely is a Muslim in the white house.
Thanks alot America!
Why should Israel be surprised? This was going to happen under an Islamist government in Turkey. There's a lesson here: there's no such thing as true friends in the world, just alliances of convenience and interests. And these can and do change with circumstances.
NormanF,
A lot of people here thought the secular Turkish army would keep the Islamist government in check. But I saw yesterday that a large number of officers were arrested for 'planning a coup' a few weeks ago and the army has been kept in check instead.
Post a Comment
<< Home