WarSclerotic

‘Warships could be in E… JPost – Arts & Culture – Entertainment.

    ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday Israel could not do whatever it wanted in the Eastern Mediterranean and that Turkish warships could be there at any moment.

“Israel cannot do whatever it wants in the eastern Mediterranean. They will see what our decisions will be on this subject. Our navy attack ships can be there at any moment,” Erdoğan told a news conference on a visit to the Tunisian capital.

Erdoğan was in Tunisia as part of a so-called Arab Spring tour of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, three nations that saw their long-time leaders deposed within the last number of months.

Last week, Erdoğan said Turkish warships will escort any Turkish aid vessels to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Erdogan also said that Turkey had taken steps to stop Israel from unilaterally exploiting natural resources from the eastern Mediterranean, according to Al Jazeera’s Arabic translation of excerpts of the interview, which was conducted in Turkish.

Israel has stuck to its policy of restraint despite continued threats from Turkey that it will attack the IDF and amid concern that Erdoğan’s trip to Egypt was aimed at establishing a permanent Turkish naval presence in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Erdoğan visited Egypt on Tuesday for talks with the transitional government as part of a bid to solidify Turkey’s standing in the Arab world. The visit came as media in Turkey reported that its defense industry has developed a new identification system for its F-16 fighter jets that will allow it to attack Israeli planes.

The report on the fighter jet identification system was the latest in a series of threats coming out of Ankara, and followed a report on Monday that Turkey was sending three frigates to the Eastern Mediterranean to protect aid ships trying to break the Israeli-imposed sea blockade on the Gaza Strip.

In an effort to prevent a further deterioration in ties, Israeli government officials declined to comment specifically on the various reports originating in Ankara and said Tuesday that Israel was growing concerned with the threats.

This entry was posted on September 15, 2011 at 2:11 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.