Turkey vetoes Israel’s latest NATO partnership bid, despite criticisms
Turkey
has blocked Israel’s participation in NATO’s upcoming Chicago summit in
a sign of Turkey’s determination to prevent its new foe from
cooperating with the alliance following a deadly ship raid.
Turkish and Israeli relations worsened
in May 2010 and have remained strained since then after Israeli naval
commandos stormed the Mavi Marmara, a ship carrying humanitarian aid to
breach Israel’s Gaza blockade, killing nine Turkish civilians.
Turkey said it will not allow Israel, a
member of the Mediterranean Dialogue, a NATO outreach program with seven
non-NATO nations, to take part in the alliance’s new “Partnership
Cooperation Menu (PCM),” during a NATO meeting in Brussels last week
attended by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.
Because of Ankara’s veto, Israel will
not attend the NATO summit due to take place from May 20 to 21 in
Chicago, an important diplomatic summit to be hosted by US President
Barack Obama.
According to information obtained from
Turkish diplomatic sources, Davutoğlu reacted to the criticism raised by
some NATO members in the Brussels meeting who claimed bilateral
problems should not be brought to the alliance by underlining that
Turkey cannot consider a country which killed Turkish citizens in
international waters as a partner.
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