Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Ankara: "We object to Iran-centric missile shield!"

"... As negotiations on a missile defence shield enter their final days before a Nato leaders' meeting in Lisbon, Turkey is turning out to be more of a problem to the alliance than Russia, whose hostile attitude towards its former Cold War enemy is starting to fade.
One of the main sticking points in agreeing the final text of Nato's new strategic concept is the language in which countries describe the potential missile threats to Europe, EUobserver has learned.
Despite being one of the early members of the military alliance which it joined in 1952, Turkey has grown increasingly at odds with its Western allies as it seeks closer ties to its eastern neighbours Iran and Syria, which the US and also some European allies, such as France, want to name as threats.
Not mentioning the Middle Eastern hotspots would create renewed difficulties with Russia, Nato diplomats say, just as Moscow has started to give signs that it no longer considers the shield to be directed against itself.
Other Nato sources say that "it is not Turkey alone" which is creating a problem for the shield, but a broader "nexus" of issues connected to missile defence, such as France's reluctance to join the aim of a "nuclear-free world" and Germany's insistance on nuclear disarmament...."

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