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Israel cancels defense deal with Turkey
Israeli officials on Thursday said they are concerned that Turkey could deliver the state-of-the-art airborne intelligence units to third parties hostile to Israel.
They said the deal was signed in 2008.
The equipment in question is an aerial intelligence system based on electro-optic sensors and meant for Turkish aircraft, Israeli news site Ynetnews said. The advanced system has already been installed on Israeli jets.
A defense official stressed that the relationship with Turkey is very important to Israel, but added that “at the same time we have security responsibility for every product that receives an export license.”
“Decisions on this matter have to do with the specific system, rather than with the overall relationship,” the official was quoted as saying by Ynetnews.
Officials from Israel's Defense Ministry and Elbit Systems, the manufacturer of the system, confirmed the deal had been called off. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the matter. There was no immediate comment from Ankara.
The news of Israel canceling the defense deal with Turkey came after a report in the Israeli media that the two former allies have reactivated a mechanism of coordination between their air forces, severed amid political tensions in September.
The coordination mechanism is designed to prevent misunderstandings and potential clashes between Turkish and Israeli military planes over the Mediterranean Sea, but it was suspended following a UN panel's report on the May 31, 2010 raid on the Turkish aid ship Mavi Marmara in September, Jerusalem Post reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper quoted an unnamed senior official of the Israeli Air Force as saying that this coordination mechanism was recently reactivated as part of the two countries' efforts to “stabilize and improve ties.” Two weeks ago, the Turkish military attache to Israel also attended an Israeli Air Force briefing for foreign military officers at the Ovda Air Force Base on the sidelines of the Israeli joint maneuvers with the Italian Air Force.
Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and other top diplomats and suspended all military agreements with Israel after the UN panel, led by former Prime Minister of New Zealand Geoffrey Palmer, said Israeli forces used excessive force during the Mavi Marmara raid, during which nine Turkish activists were killed, but concluded that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was legal.
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