Category: Syria

Wang Hui,

China Daily December 9, 2012 1:00 am

Nato’s decision to accede to Turkey’s request that the alliance deploy Patriot missiles along the Turkish-Syrian border will have profound implications on the security scenario in the Middle East. Since there is no guarantee that Nato’s defensive measure will not be used against others, the move will complicate an already tricky situation and prevent the Syrian crisis from being resolved diplomatically.

Western countries have thrown their weight behind Syrian rebels, providing them with support during the 21-month Syrian crisis. Nato officials have until now ruled out military intervention in Syria mainly because member states are wary of consequences that would follow. In other words, Nato is not really opposed to a forcible regime change in Syria – like the one it brought about in Libya. It’s just waiting for an opportune moment.

Under such circumstances, the deployment of Patriot missiles along Turkey’s border could be seen as preparations for military intervention in Syria.

In his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, Nato secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen tried to reassure Moscow that the Patriot missiles would not be used to impose a no-fly zone in Syria and instead were aimed at defending Turkey.

History tells us that any show of force in a strategically sensitive place cannot be a sign of goodwill. For one thing, Nato’s military manoeuvrings at the doorsteps of Syria could embolden the Syrian opposition forces to intensify their fight against government forces, which would only cause more bloodshed in the turbulent country.

Given Nato’s record, its pledges that the missile deployment is defensive in nature sound hollow. In March 2011, Nato usurped a UN resolution that mandated the implementation of a no-fly zone in Libya to launch airstrikes, which led to the fall of Mu’ammar Gadhafi. There is no guarantee that Nato would not use the Patriot missiles’ cover to do the same in Syria.

Moreover, Nato’s claim that the missiles are intended to defend Turkey against an attack from Syria does not sound convincing at all.

It’s true that in October, firing from inside the Syrian border triggered an exchange of shelling with Turkey, which is believed to have fuelled Ankara’s fears of the crisis spilling into Turkish land. But Turkey’s military is far superior to Syria’s, and it has the advantage of being home to an American military base. Turkey does not lack the resources to defend its borders.

So, what is Nato’s true intention then? A look at the timing of the hullabaloo around Syria’s chemical weapons issue may shed some light on the question.

Interestingly, while Nato was mulling Turkey’s proposal of missile deployment, news of Syria supposedly moving chemical weapons hit the papers. As Western leaders warned Syria of the consequences if it ever used the weapons, Nato accepted Turkey’s demand.

The fear of chemical weapons, though not for the first time, prompted Nato to play the moral card and agree to deploy the missiles.

With the chemical weapons issue continuing to brew, Nato could get another excuse to intervene in Syria in more indirect ways.

But Nato should stop assuming the vanguard’s role in the internal affairs of other countries, because trampling the UN Charter will only aggravate the crisis and plunge the region deeper into instability.

via Why Nato is deploying missiles in Turkey – The Nation.

By By SUZAN FRASER Associated Press

ANKARA, Turkey November 28, 2012 (AP)

A NATO team assessing possible sites for Patriot missiles to protect Turkey’s border with Syria inspected military installations Wednesday in southeast Turkey, the state-run news agency reported.

NATO member Turkey asked allies to deploy the missiles as a defense against any aerial attack from Syria after mortar rounds and shells from Syria struck Turkish territory, killing five people.

Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads.

The NATO team visited military facilities in Malatya province, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the Syrian border, the Anadolu Agency reported. The province is already home to an early warning radar that is part of NATO’s missile defense system, which is capable of countering ballistic missile threats from Iran.

The visit came as the alliance said it would “favorably examine” Turkey’s request for the air defense missiles but was awaiting the team’s report on where to base them.

NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero said the NATO team was expected to finish its work in the next few days and would feed its proposals to NATO’s military authorities.

AP

In this photo released by the Syrian official… View Full Caption

“This recommendation is a key element in the Council’s decision-making process,” she said, in reference to the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s governing body that is made up of the ambassadors of all its 28 members.

Romero said “allies with available Patriots have also made clear their intention to augment Turkey’s defenses, subject to national processes.”

Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. have the advanced PAC-3 model Patriots that Turkey wants to intercept ballistic missiles.

Once NATO and the national parliaments in Germany and the Netherlands approve the deployment of the Patriots, it will probably take at least another month before they become operational. Due to the complexity and size of the Patriot batteries — including their radars, command-and-control centers, communications and support facilities — they cannot be flown quickly by air to Turkey and will probably have to travel by sea, officials said.

The deployment of the Patriots is also likely to be discussed at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next Tuesday and Wednesday.

Russia, meanwhile, has come out against the Patriot missile deployment, saying that basing the missiles so close to the border could worsen the bloodshed in Syria.

Syria is reported to have an array of artillery rockets, as well as short- and medium-range missiles — including Soviet-built SS-21 Scarabs and Scud-B missiles — in its arsenal. The latter are capable of carrying chemical warheads.

Syria’s conflict started 20 months ago as an uprising against President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled the country for four decades. It quickly morphed into a civil war, with rebels taking up arms to fight back against a bloody crackdown by the government. According to activists, at least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria since March 2011.

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Associated Press writer Slobodan Lekic in Brussels contributed.

via NATO Visits Southeast Turkey for Patriot Missiles – ABC News.

DAMASCUS: Syria said on Friday plans by Turkey to site Patriot missiles along its border was “a new act of provocation,” while allies Iran and Russia warned the move would complicate the situation and could spark a regional conflagration.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen reacted by reassuring Moscow that any such deployment would be a “defensive only” measure.

Turkey turned to its NATO partners earlier this week to request the deployment of the surface-to-air Patriot missiles to protect its troubled border with Syria, which is engulfed in a war that has cost some 40,000 lives.

Syria’s foreign ministry accused Ankara of causing “tension and destruction,” with state television quoted an official as calling it “a new act of provocation.”

“Syria holds (Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan responsible for the militarisation of the situation at the border between Syria and Turkey, and the increase of tension,” the unidentified official said.

Syria has long accused Turkey of harbouring, financing and arming rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that any deployment of Patriots by Turkey may create a temptation to use the weapons and spark a “very serious armed conflict” involving NATO.

“I understand that no one has any intention to see NATO get sucked into the Syrian crisis,” Lavrov said. But “the more arms are being accumulated, the greater the risk that they will be used.”

NATO spokesman Carmen Romero later said Rasmussen had told Lavrov by telephone that such a deployment “would in no way support a no-fly zone or any offensive operations.”

“Such a deployment would augment Turkey’s air defence capabilities to defend the population and territory of Turkey,” Rasmussen told Lavrov.

But Iran’s foreign ministry accused Turkey of aggravating the situation.

“Not only does it not help resolve the situation in Syria but it will also aggravate and complicate the situation,” spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, quoted on state television.

“The insistence (of certain countries) to resolve the Syrian crisis through military means is the main cause of tensions and threats in the region,” he said.

Iran parliament speaker in Damascus

Meanwhile, Iran’s influential parliament speaker Ali Larijani was in Damascus at the start of a three-nation tour billed at trying to find a solution to the conflict roiling Syria.

Larijani accused regional powers he did not name of causing “problems” in Syria, in an allusion to the principal champions of arming the rebels fighting to overthrow Assad’s regime — Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

“Syria has played an important role in supporting the resistance (against Israel and the United States) but some in the region want to carry out actions with negative consequences, to cause problems in Syria,” he told journalists.

On his second stop in Beirut later on Friday, Larijani reiterated Iran’s opposition to the arming of rebels and foreign military intervention.

“Some are sending arms to bring democracy to Syria. I believe you cannot set up democracy with RPGs,” he told reporters on the eve of a visit to Turkey. Iran “supports a political dialogue for a political solution.”

On the ground, violence erupted in flashpoints across the country, while tensions spiked in the northeast near Turkey, where Kurdish militia are engaged in a standoff with rebels.

Following several days of combat against a rebel advance into Kurdish areas, two main Kurdish groups have agreed to join forces, an activist said.

Hundreds of fighters loyal to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) — which has close ties to Turkey’s rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — have been locked in fierce battles with fighters of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front and allied Ghuraba al-Sham group in Ras al-Ain on the border with Turkey.

The activist said agreement had now been reached in Iraq “to create a united military force, bringing together PYD forces and other Kurdish dissidents” in Syria.

The agreement sets the stage for an expanded conflict in the area between Islamist rebels opposed to Assad and Syrian Kurdish forces.

At least 46 people were killed in violence across the country on Friday, including 18 rebels, 15 civilians and 13 soldiers, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

-AFP/ac

via Turkey request for missiles “new act of provocation”: Syria – Channel NewsAsia.