Israel Matzav

And again: NATO assures Turkey missile defense data won't be shared with Israel

You have to wonder how many times they're going to keep saying this, but NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has once again assured Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that NATO will not share information from its American-provided anti-missile installation in Turkey with Israel.

“Data collected within the missile defense system, the intelligence will not be shared with third countries. It will be shared with the allies within our alliance,” Rasmussen, in Ankara to mark the 60th anniversary of Turkey's membership in NATO, said at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. The top NATO official also emphasized once again that the system is a defensive project aimed at protecting NATO members from missile threat. Turkey has agreed to deploy US radar as part of the missile defense system last autumn, after seeking guarantees in preceding talks for months that Israel will not have access to data to be collected by the radar.

Davutoğlu emphasized that the missile defense system will not offer intelligence to Israel, whose ties with Turkey have been in a state of crisis since Israeli commandos killed nine Turks during a May 31, 2010 raid on an aid ship trying to breach an Israeli blockade of Gaza. Certain news reports alleging that the missile defense system in Turkey was recently tested by an Israeli missile were groundless and baseless, Davutoğlu also noted. “NATO facilities and capacities are used only and only by NATO allies as part of NATO solidarity,” he said. “We never allow a NATO facility to be used by a third party. I want to make this very clear. And, if this party was Israel, our attitude would be more clear and visible,” Davutoğlu said.

Actually, relations between Turkey and Israel have been strained at least since January 2009 when Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan stormed out of the Davos Conference after screaming at Israeli President Shimon Peres.

But one has to wonder why the continuous Turkish insistence on NATO issuing statements over and over again that the information will not be shared with Israel. Do they fear that someone else will share the information with Israel? For example, one of NATO's member countries. Is there really any way to stop that?

And what of NATO's working relation with Israel, which may soon see Israel open an office near NATO's headquarters?

And what of Turkey's continuing membership in NATO? Would Turkey quit if information were shared with Israel? Would anyone else care if that happened?

Hmmm. It seems to me that the Turks are quite insecure.

Labels: NATO, Turkish obsession with Israel

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:46 PM