Two fire fighting airplanes sent from Turkish capital of Ankara have reached Israel at about 10.00 hours on Friday.
In a written statement issued Friday, the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry said that the two CL-215 type airplanes were sent upon a directive from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to assist in extinguishing the fire at Israeli city of Haifa.
In case of a request (from Israel), five Cross-border Fire Operation Teams are waiting ready in the Turkish provinces of Mersin, Adana and Kahramanmaras to help efforts to extinguish the Haifa fire, the Ministry said.
The Ministry’s statement also had a quote from the Turkish Minister of Environment and Forestry Veysel Eroglu: “Forests are the property of the whole world. We conduct activities to extinguish forest fires in all corners of the world. In the past, we sent assistance to Syria, Georgia, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Greek Cypriot administration, Greece, Russia and Balkan countries to extinguish fires there. We offer our condolences to the families of the victims at the Haifa fire. We hope that the fire in Haifa would be extinguished soon”.
Israeli premier appreciated Turkey’s sending two fire fighting planes to put out the forest fire in Israel.
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the phone on Friday, and said that he called to convey his appreciation to Turkey for sending the planes.
The assistance of Turkey was very big and meaningful, Netanyahu told Erdogan.
Erdogan also expressed sorrow over death of 41 Israeli citizens during the fire, and he offered condolences to Israel.
Erdogan said that Turkey was ready to help injured people too.
In a written statement issued Friday, Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry said that the two CL-215 type airplanes were sent upon a directive from Erdogan to assist in extinguishing the fire at Israeli city of Haifa.
Two fire fighting airplanes sent from Turkish capital of Ankara have reached Israel at about 10.00 hours today.
In case of a request (from Israel), five Cross-border Fire Operation Teams are waiting ready in Turkish provinces of Mersin, Adana and Kahramanmaras to help efforts to extinguish the fire.
Americans dismissed ‘bureaucratic’ Foreign Office concern that Lebanese Hezbollah suspects might be tortured
Richard Norton-Taylor and David Leigh
RAF Akrotiri at Limassol, Cyprus. WikiLeaks cables claim the US brushed aside British objections about secret spy flights from the base Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images
American officials swept aside British protests about secret US spy flights taking place from the UK’s Cyprus airbase, the leaked diplomatic cables reveal.
Labour ministers said they feared making the UK an unwitting accomplice to torture, and were upset about rendition flights going on behind their backs.
The use of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus for American U2 spy plane missions over Hezbollah locations in Lebanon – missions that have never been disclosed until now – prompted an acrimonious series of exchanges between British officials and the US embassy in London, according to the cables released by WikiLeaks. The then foreign secretary David Miliband is quoted as saying, unavailingly, “policymakers needed to get control of the military“.
Ministers demanded a full “audit trail” of covert operations, codenamed Cedar Sweep, amid growing public concern in the UK about unacknowledged CIA rendition flights and alleged UK complicity in torture. The planes gathered intelligence that was then allegedly passed to the Lebanese authorities to help them track down Hezbollah militants. In the past, such flights have also been carried out on Israel’s behalf by the Americans.
As the 2008 row escalated, the US rejected the British concerns over torture in unequivocal terms, with one senior official at the embassy in London baldly stating in one cable: “We cannot take a risk-avoidance approach to CT [counter-terrorism] in which the fear of potentially violating human rights allows terrorism to proliferate in Lebanon.”
The cables disclose that as well as the Lebanon missions, U2s from Akrotiri were gathering intelligence over Turkey and northern Iraq.The information was secretly supplied to the Turkish authorities in an operation codenamed Highland Warrior. The British protested that “in both cases, intelligence product is intended to be passed to third-party governments”.
On 18 April 2008, Britain demanded the US embassy provide full details of all flights so ministers could tell whether they “put the UK at risk of being complicit in unlawful acts … This is a very important point for ministers”.
A US diplomat, Maura Connelly, cabled: “We understand that these additional precautionary measures stem from the February revelation that the US government transited renditioned persons through Diego Garcia without UK permission and HMG’s [her majesty’s government’s] resultant need to ensure it is not similarly blindsided in the future.”
She complained to Washington that the demands were “burdensome” and “an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy”.
Will Jessett, then director of counter-terrorism at the ministry of defence, had sent a letter warning that “the use of UK bases for covert or potentially controversial missions” on behalf of Lebanon or Turkey meant it was “important for us to be satisfied that HMG is not indirectly aiding the commission of unlawful acts by those governments”.
The letter warned that other states, particularly Cyprus, might well object should they find out. Ministers therefore wanted the US to submit each time “an assessment of any legal or human rights implications”.
On 24 April, the embassy sent a cable to Washington entitled: “Houston, we have a problem”. It stated: “HMG ministers are adamant.”
The embassy “pushed back hard” on demands for a full “audit trail” of spy flights. But in what appears to have been a heated dispute, the British responded by detailing other US “oversights”.
“Contacts cited instances in which operations Highland Warrior and Cedar Sweep had been conducted from the UK sovereign base areas of Akrotiri without the proper ministerial approvals … In addition, Highland Warrior had raised tensions with the Cypriots, jeopardising the UK’s hold on Akrotiri.”
There were “other lapses that proved embarrassing to HMG (ie renditions through Diego Garcia and improperly documented shipments of weaponry through Prestwick airport)”.
The US used Prestwick in 2006 as a staging post to ship laser-guided bombs to Israel, causing British protests. The Israelis wanted the munitions to attack Hezbollah bunkers in Lebanon.
The US embassy concluded: “A new element of distrust has crept into the US-UK mil-mil relationship.
“The renditions revelation proved highly embarrassing for the Brown government. The British proposal … may be disproportionate but is almost certainly an indication of the Brown government’s sensitivity … at a time Brown is facing increasing domestic political woes.”
A month later Britain was still, according to the US, “piling on concerns and conditions” about human rights, saying that although junior minister Kim Howells was making the decisions, Miliband was being kept informed.
British officials warned that ministerial concerns “could jeopardise future use of British territory”.
US patience finally snapped when a Foreign Office official, John Hillman, passed on the message that “even the [US] state department’s own human rights report had documented cases of torture and arbitrary arrest by the Lebanese armed forces”.
Hillman urged the US to ensure the welfare of prisoners in Lebanon “if there were any risk that detainees captured with the help of Cedar Sweep intel could be tortured”.
At this point Richard LeBaron, charges d’affaires at the London embassy, cabled Washington that human rights concerns could not be allowed to get in the way of counter-terrorism operations. Britain’s demands were “not only burdensome but unrealistic”, he said, proposing “high-level approaches” to call the British to heel.
“Excessive conditions such as described above will hinder, if not obstruct, our co-operative counter-terrorism efforts,” he said.
Senior Bush administration official John Rood stepped in and the Foreign Office’s director general for defence and intelligence, Mariot Leslie, hastened to placate him.
The clash was “unnecessarily confrontational”, she told him. “Leslie expressed annoyance at the additional conditions conveyed by the FCO working level,” the cable states. “She had not been aware beforehand that such a message would be conveyed. In fact she regretted the tenor of the discussions had turned prickly, and underscored HMG appreciation for US-UK military and intelligence co-operation.”
She reassured him that US was not actually expected to check on detained terrorists.
“Ministers had merely wanted to impress upon the US government that they take the human rights considerations seriously.
“She noted that HMG ‘desperately needs’ [Cyprus] for its own intelligence gathering and operations and was committed to keeping them available to the US (and France).
“However, the Cypriots are hypersensitive about the British presence there, she said, and could ‘turn off the utilities at any time’. That, combined with the ‘toxic mix’ of the rendition flights through Diego Garcia, has resulted in tremendous parliamentary, public and media pressure on HMG.”
Leslie stuck to her guns on one point, saying the US embassy would still have to put in full written applications for future spy missions because “Miliband believed that ‘policymakers needed to get control of the military’.” The cable stated: “Leslie … was very frank that HMG did object to some of what the US government does (eg renditions).”
British ministers loyally kept these objections about the US to themselves, however, despite coming uinder repeated attack from the UK media for alleged complicity in the dispatch of Islamist prisoners to places where they would be tortured.
US use of Cyprus has always been controversial. Relations between London and Washington were strained at the time of the attacks on Israel during the 1973 Yom Kippur war by Ted Heath’s decision to adopt a policy of strict neutrality. The then prime minister refused to allow the US to use Britain’s electronic intercept and air bases on Cyprus .
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-cyprus-rendition-torture, 2 December 2010
Ankara to send firefighting aircraft to Israel in attempt to extinguish raging blaze; Greece, Cyprus, Spain also lend support.
Turkish officials announced Thursday that Turkey has offered to send Israel two firefighting aircraft to help control the huge blaze was continuing to spread through northern Israel.
Despite tensions between the Jerusalem and Ankara Turkey decided to offer help along with European countries such as Greece, Spain and Cyprus.
As fires raged in the Carmel mountains on Thursday, 40 prison wardens en route to the Damon Prison burned to death in a bus caught up in the blaze .
The wardens were meant to assist in evacuating some 500 prisoners from the facility, situated near Kibbutz Beit Oren. Their vehicle was engulfed in fast moving flames which had spread to the narrow mountain road linking Atlit to Kibbutz Bet Oren.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman asked ambassadors in the United States, Europe and Jordan to seek assistance in overcoming the blaze.
Turkish Foreign Minister also denies he predicted Israel wouldn’t remain independent for long
Ynet
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday denied reports which stated that Turkey tagged Israel as a threat in a significant document that outlines Turkey’s policies. Davutoglu denied reports that he himself doubted Israel’s ability to survive in the long term, the Washington Times reported during Davutoglu’s visit to the US.
Talking Turkey
Turkish bill bans Israelis from buying land / Aviel Magnezi
Milliyet report says bill in works eases restrictions on land purchase to attract foreign investment, but prohibits sale to Greek, Israeli citizens. Bill also favors Iranians, Syrians, and Saudis by exempting them from limitations
Full Story
“The news does not have any verification and does not have any validity – it is just speculation,” Mr. Davutoglu told reporters, referring to a Turkish media report from late October claiming that Turkey’s National Security Council had listed Israel as a “major threat” in its ‘red book’ while removing the designation from Iran and Syria.
Davutoglu refuted the reports that claimed that he said that “Israel will not be able to remain an independent country” and that he called for a joint Palestinian-Israeli state to be established. “I don’t know why the Israeli press is doing this always,” he said. “I am a young person … my memory is quite good. I didn’t make such a speech anywhere.”
Davutoglu is visiting the US two days after the release of the publication of the leaked Wikileaks documents, in which American diplomats defined the foreign minister as “extremely dangerous” and stated that there is evidence that Turkish Prime Minister “Recep Tayyip Erdogan simply hates Israel”.
Davutoglu said in response that “when Israel was working for peace, we had good relations with Israel”, he stressed.
The Turkish foreign minister mentioned a meeting held before Operation Cast Lead where Israel’s prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert was a guest in Erdogan’s home as part of Israel’s indirect talks with Syria: “And … there was a telephone link with President Bashar Assad in Syria and indirectly Ehud Olmert was speaking to Bashar Assad through Prime Minister Erdogan and myself,” he said.”
via Turkey denies defining Israel as threat – Israel News, Ynetnews.
JERUSALEM — Newly divulged State Department cables confirmed this week what Middle Eastern diplomats have been whispering for some time: that Israel’s long-touted partnership with Turkey is effectively broken.
The cables, released by the WikiLeaks website, help set the context for a major shift by Israel, which for the last two years has quietly intensified its military cooperation with Turkey’s neighbor and rival, Greece, and other Mediterranean countries.
The deterioration of once-close ties between Turkey, a secular Muslim country, and Israel, an avowedly Jewish nation – both close American allies – has significant implications for the United States in the Middle East, and even on U.S. efforts to press Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program.
The cables portray Israel as convinced that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is anti-Israel, and indicate that the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, the Turkish capital, essentially agrees.
In a secret cable sent Oct. 26, 2009, then-U.S. Ambassador James F. Jeffrey relayed the assessment of Gabby Levy, Israel’s ambassador to Turkey, that Erdogan is “a fundamentalist” and “hates us religiously.” Jeffrey commented that U.S. discussions with contacts inside and outside the Turkish government confirm the Israeli thesis that Erdogan “simply hates Israel.”
Erdogan responded to the accusations in these and other cables – some of which raised questions about his sources of income and private overseas bank accounts – and demanded Wednesday that the U.S. issue an apology.
“The U.S. is responsible in first degree for the slanders its diplomats make with their incorrect interpretations,” Erdogan said. “There are lies and incorrect information in those documents.”
The cables tell only part of the story of the growing distance between Israel and Turkey.
Until now, Israeli officials have insisted in public that the two countries remain regional partners, especially in light of their military cooperation. Now they say that as early as 2008, Israel’s military has pursued other partners for joint aerial and naval exercises. These include Greece, first and foremost, as well as other countries in the Mediterranean.
“It is true that we cannot hold the type of exercises with Turkey we once did,” said a high-ranking official in Israel’s navy, who spoke with McClatchy Newspapers only on the condition of anonymity in keeping with the military’s policy on news media interviews. “In the days of better relations we held a number of exercises in Turkish waters and in their airspace.”
Because of its limited airspace, Israel has constantly sought close ties with countries with which it can hold training exercises. Israeli aerial exercises over Turkey have long been viewed as dry runs for a potential strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, and joint naval exercises off the coast of Turkey have allowed Israel to practice refueling and communication drills.
Israel is now turning to a number of countries, including Greece, to hold new joint drills.
A Greek training official, who described himself as “in charge of new purchases and new recruits” in Athens, told McClatchy last month that there has been a “boom” in military relations between Israel and Greece.
“We have similar goals, similar problems and similar enemies,” he said. “We find ourselves working very well together.”
via Feeling spurned by Turkey, Israel beefs up ties to Greece, others – World AP – MiamiHerald.com.
Two fire fighting airplanes sent from Turkish capital of Ankara have reached Israel at about 10.00 hours on Friday.
