Ankara won’t allow Israel to use Turkish airspace in attacking Iran
Today's Zaman / ABDULLAH BOZKURT
21-Sep-2009 (one comment)

The prospect of a surprise Israeli air strikeon suspected Iranian nuclear sites using Turkish airspace would havealarming implications in the region and would certainly invite thewrath of Turkey upon Israel, a senior analyst in Ankara has said.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity becauseof the sensitivity of the issue, he said Turkey would never signal itswillingness to accept such an air strike by the Israeli Air Force (IAF)and would immediately shoot down any aircraft violating its own spaceen route to Iran, which he described as a neighbor and importanttrading partner. “Even tacit approval of such an operation would goagainst everything Turkey stands for and would throw the balance ofpower in the region into chaos,” he stressed.

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Dan Huck

The Turks & Brzezinski Don't Beat Around The Bush!

by Dan Huck on

When the Turkish newspaper, Todays Zaman, ran this article, it seemed like the other nations likely to be involved, like ourselves in Iraq, were going to let the story fly under the radar, in an manner of speaking.  ZB's comment dispels the idea that no one was paying attention. The JTA site reported it in this way:

September 21, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Zbigniew Brzezinski said the United States should make clear that it will attack Israeli jets if they fly over Iraq on their way to attack Iran.

"We are not exactly impotent little babies," said Brzezinski, national security adviser during the Carter administration, in an interview with The Daily Beast Web site when asked how aggressive President Obama can be in telling Israel that a military strike in Iran is not in America's interest. "They have to fly over our airspace in Iraq. Are we just going to sit there and watch?

"We have to be serious about denying them that right," continued Brzezinski, who endorsed Obama early in the Democratic primary but was not an official adviser to the campaign. "That means a denial where you aren't just saying it. If they fly over, you go up and confront them. They have the choice of turning back or not. No one wishes for this but it could be a Liberty in reverse."

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Further - If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time since the attack, during the 6 day war in 1967, when the U.S.S. Liberty, an unarmed US reconnaissance/intelligence ship was attacked in broad daylight by Israeli Naval and Air forces off the coast of Sinai, and almost sunk, that even a former high-ranking American official has referred to the incident in what might be considered an indirect public communication to Israel that the US has not forgotten. Thirty-four US servicemen were killed and many more were wounded. What Mr. Brzezinski is apparently alluding to is the most credible explanation for what happened; that the Israelis had notified Washington it did not want any of our ships in that area, but that due to a snafu, the ship's Captain was not notified. The attack, without warning, was the kind of thing the Klingon command might have done, not a nation with close ties to ourselves.

Like ourselves, however, Israel is a sovereign nation, and chooses its actions independently.

 Doing as we would like to be done unto, it's appropriate for us to let the Israelis know - Don't fly over Iraq to attack another nation on our Watch!

 



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