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Turkish FM Abdullah Gul: Ankara will not be drawn into any US or
Israel military operations against Iran
April 30, 2006, 2:26
PM (GMT+02:00)
The Dubai newspaper
Al Bayan (out on April 30) quotes the Turkish leader as
disclosing that, during her visit to Ankara last Tuesday, US
secretary of state
Condoleezza Rice
requested the use of the
Incirlik
air base for an
American strike against Iranian nuclear installations. She was
said to have offered Turkey in return a nuclear reactor for
electricity,
but was turned down.
DEBKAfile’s
military sources add:
Washington’s
original request was for permission to build a
new air base
in eastern Turkey between Lake Van and the Iranian border.
From there, US bombers could have reached nuclear targets
situated in northern Iran where most of its nuclear sites are
thought to be concentrated.
In particular, they
could have hit the top secret plant under construction at
Neyshabour – first disclosed by DEBKAfile on April
15 - to run 155,000 centrifuges, enough to enrich uranium for
3-5 nuclear bombs a year.
To read this article, click
HERE.
This was the second
time in three years that the Turks have spurned an American
request to use its bases for attacking a Middle East neighbor.
Ankara’s refusal of a second front for the US-led Iraq invasion
in 2003 delayed Saddam Hussein’s overthrow by more than a month.
Turkey’s rationale
this time is motivated by five factors:
1. Ankara does not
believe the US will go through with military action against
Iran.
2. Gul says that
with 165 nuclear sites scattered over Iran, its program is well
nigh indestructible.
3. Ankara perceives
the Bush administration’s domestic situation as too shaky to
undertake an effective military attack on Iran. The Erdogan
government believes the Republican party faces defeats in the
mid-term elections at the end of the year.
4. Turkey has no
intention of joining an American-Israeli military collaboration
against Iran, or following the example of Pakistan and India in
complying with Washington’s demands.
5. Turkish actions
against the radical Kurdish PKK rebel strongholds in Northern
Iraq are raising tensions in relations Ankara-Washington
relations. Especially resented is the reciprocal assistance
understanding Turkey and Iran have concluded to help each fight
the Iraq-based Turkish PKK and the anti-Tehran People’s
Mujaheedeen. Both Turkey and Iran have massed forces on their
borders with northern Iraq. Turkey complains that its requests
to Washington to help root the PKK out of its bases in northern
Iraq were greeted with the response that violence in other parts
of Iraq were the priority of US force.
Rice during her
visit called on Ankara to refrain from “unilateral action”
against the Kurdish rebels in Iraq. |
