US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Turkey Monday that US and British pilots guarding the US-UK imposed no-fly zones in north and south Iraq were in danger due to improved air defense systems now owned by the Iraqi army.
He accused “external parties” of helping Iraq obtain the new systems, according to a statement issued by the Pentagon.
Pressed to specify these parties, the secretary said "communication workers," including some from China, had been working on "various types of linkages of communications" in the last four months.
“Any person watching what takes place has to recognize that there is a risk to pilots that fly in areas that are dangerous and defended...The risk grows to the extent that other nations assist Iraq in strengthening its military capability, its air defense capability and its ability to proceed with its clear and unambiguous desire to have increasingly powerful weapons and military capabilities,” the official said at a press conference he held jointly with Turkish officials in Ankara.
The accusation, which has been repeatedly rejected by both Iraq and China, surfaced when the allied forces launched an air raid on Baghdad in February, claiming that their pilots were at risk.
According to reports, Turkey highly appreciates the fact that it was chosen as the first destination of the secretary while on his first external tour.
The US and British air forces use the Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey as a staging area for patrols and intermittent retaliatory strikes against Iraqi air defenses in a no-fly zone imposed in the north after the 1991 Gulf War.
The zones are not sanctioned by any UN resolution.
General Joseph Ralston, the commander of US forces in Europe and NATO's supreme commander, has urged that the flights from Turkey be scaled back sharply because of the low benefits of flying the potentially risky missions, Pentagon officials have said, quoted by AFP.
In a speech to the pilots at Incirlik air base, Rumsfeld urged them to stay vigilant during the course of their mission to contain Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said the agency.
"Our work here reminds us that so long as regimes like the Iraqi regime exist, the threats to freedom will not cease," he said.
Rumsfeld's brief visit to Ankara coincided with Baghdad officially halting oil exports under UN control in protest of US-British efforts to impose a new sanctions regime, taking 2.3 million barrels of crude off world markets.
But the US official brushed aside the Iraqi move, saying it would not have a "significant economic impact,” according to the agency.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit later told a Turkish news channel that he urged close contact with Washington on the planned "smart" sanctions, which would abolish the embargo on civilian trade with Iraq, while tightening a weapons ban and controls on oil smuggling outside UN deal.
"There is still no solution to the Iraqi problem ten years after the Gulf War. I touched upon the benefit of close dialogue on the issue," Ecevit was quoted by AFP as telling the NTV channel.
He underlined that the international policy against Iraq until now had caused Ankara to rack up huge losses, especially in its eastern and southeastern regions, due to the cut in border trade.
Turkey, which backed the US-led Western alliance during the Gulf War, has said the new scheme should not hurt neighboring countries who have already suffered heavy losses of trade with Iraq due to the embargo.
Ankara puts its losses at some $35 billion (41 billion euros).
Another issue on the agenda was Turkey's objection to an accord to tighten links between NATO and a proposed EU military force, which has troubled ties between EU-aspirant Ankara and Brussels.
Rumsfeld said in Ankara that a "good deal of progress" had been made toward overcoming the dispute. "We are quite close to a resolution," he added.
But Ecevit drew quite a contrary picture.
"Our American friends believe the problem was very close to a resolution following the Budapest meeting" between NATO and EU officials last week, Ecevit said.
"But I told (Rumsfeld) that progress had been made, but that it was not sufficient," he added.
Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, has for months blocked an accord on EU access to NATO strategic planning assets, insisting such access be decided on a case-by-case basis and not "guaranteed and permanent" as the EU wants.
The EU, on the other hand, opposes including non-EU member states which are members of NATO -- such as Turkey -- in the decision-making process, said the agency – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
