13 October 2009 / ,
A multinational air force exercise that was supposed to take place in Turkey has been postponed indefinitely after the Turks asked Israel not to participate, officials said Sunday, in a sign of the strained relations between the two allies.
The 11-day exercise, which takes place every few years, was supposed to start on Monday. A statement on the Turkish military’s Web site said that the exercise would take place on a national level, but that international participation had been canceled after “international negotiations conducted by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.” Military officials declined to elaborate. A Foreign Ministry official, who requested anonymity because of the delicacy of the matter, said the international exercise was postponed for technical, not political, reasons.