-I haven't seen this posted elsewhere, but thought it may be interesting to some here:
Monday, November 12, 2007
Israel may sell Arrow and Ofek to Turkey
[Link at bottom]
Israel and Turkey are holding high-level talks on a possible sale of the
Arrow ballistic missile defense system and a model of the Ofek spy satellite
to Turkey, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Turkish officials said senior Israeli defense delegations had recently met
with their counterparts in Ankara for talks on the sale of the systems, two
of Israel's most advanced military platforms. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is
scheduled to visit Ankara in January to continue the negotiations.
On Sunday, President Shimon Peres arrived in Ankara under heavy security for
a three-day visit, at the invitation of Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
Peres
received an honorary doctorate from Bilkent University in Ankara.
"Turkey is an important player in the Middle East in relation to Syria, the
United States and the Palestinians, as well as us," Peres told reporters en
route to Ankara.
Peres, Gul and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled
to meet at the Ankara Forum on Tuesday and are expected to announce the
establishment of an industrial zone in the West Bank. Peres said Sunday that
"150,000 jobs are far more important [for promoting peace] than 15,000
rifles."
To strengthen Abbas, Peres said, Israel needed to improve the quality of
life in the Palestinian territories. He expressed optimism that Palestinian
and Israeli negotiating teams would agree on a joint document to be
submitted to the Middle East conference in Annapolis, Maryland, later this
month.
Peres's talks with the Turkish leadership will focus on the possibility of
renewing Israeli negotiations with Syria, the Iranian threat and the growing
rift between Turkey and the US over a nonbinding resolution to formally
recognize the Armenian genocide of 1915.
The sale of the Arrow and the Ofek is not expected to come up during Peres's
conversations here, since the issue is being dealt with on a defense
industry level. Both systems are manufactured by Israel Aerospace
Industries.
Turkey and Israel have held talks over a sale of the Arrow for several
years, and the deal is pending approval from the United States, which
finances more than 30 percent of the defense system's production. In April,
Arieh Herzog, head of the Homa Missile Defense Agency, told the Post he
favored selling the Arrow to Israel's allies, including Turkey.
Israeli defense officials said Turkey was interested in acquiring a missile
defense system in the face of Iran's race toward nuclear power. The sale of
an Ofek satellite (Israel launched the Ofek 7 in June) would dramatically
increase Turkish intelligence-gathering capabilities, since today Turkey
does not have its own spy satellites.
"The purchase of these two systems would skip Turkey years forward in
operational capabilities," an Israeli defense official said.
www.jpost.com
/servlet/Satellite?cid=1192380787827&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
