Pompeo: US policy on Turkey doesn’t hurt Israel
Secretary of state reportedly heading to J’lem for talks
The US pullout of its troops from northeast Syria has not endangered Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said amid reports that he was heading to Jerusalem to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after visiting Ankara on Thursday.
Channel 13 reported that Pompeo will discuss the removal of US troops with Netanyahu. Prior to that meeting, Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence will meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and ask him to halt his attack on the Kurds.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is a strong supporter of Israel, tweeted that he worried that as a result of the pullout of US troops – a move seen as an abandonment of America’s alley the Kurds – “we will not have allies in the future against radical Islam, ISIS will reemerge, & Iran’s rise in Syria will become a nightmare for Israel. I fear this is a complete and utter national security disaster in the making and I hope President Trump will adjust his thinking.”
He warned it could prove to be a worse disaster than when former US president Barack Obama left Iraq.
But in an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network, Pompeo dismissed the idea that US strategy was bad for Israel.
“You heard earlier in our montage of comments from people – the former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, was in the studio earlier this week, and he said the winners in all of this are Russia, Assad, Iran, and ISIS. Is it your belief
All the main systems of the M60-A1 tank, which were originally manufactured in the United States in the 1960s, were replaced with more advanced and modern systems already integrated into the main battle tanks of the IDF at a cost of $687 million.
Between 2003 and 2010, some 170 M60-A1 tanks were fitted with a 120 mm. cannon as well as advanced fire and turret control systems, and a new power unit with a 1000HP engine and transmission. The tanks were also fitted with hybrid armor (both active and passive) over its frontal arc.
Dozens of other subcontractors were involved in the project, with Elbit systems as the primary subcontractor and smaller defense
companies Urdan and Orlite also taking part.
“In order to continue with the positive contribution to peace and stability in the region that Turkey is located, it makes it compulsory for our armed forces to possess strong as well as deterrent capabilities,” Turkey’s then-national defense minister Vecdi Gönül was quoted by the Defense Turkey news website as saying.
Turkey and Israel had been close allies since the 1960s in the defense industry, security cooperation, intelligence sharing and military training, which peaked with the 1994 Defense Cooperation Agreement and 1996 Military Training Cooperation Agreement.
With those two agreements, the military-security ties became one of the closest in the Middle East, with Israel providing intelligence to Turkey in its ongoing fight against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), and Ankara providing Israel intelligence it had gathered on Iran.
In addition, Turkey used to be one of Israel’s primary arms customers, with Israeli firms upgrading F-4E planes for an estimated $1 billion as well as supplying Turkey with armed Heron drones for $200 million, electronic reconnaissance and surveillance systems at $200 million, and advanced missile systems and smart ammunition for $150 million.
The upgrades to the M60A1 tanks were carried out as part of a larger defense pact between Israel and Turkey that spoke of the possible Israeli sale of a spy satellite, the Arrow missile defense system, and Merkava tanks.
The Turks had in the past lost tanks in Syria, but in April 2016 an M60-A1 tank that had been upgraded by Israel was only slightly damaged in an attack by ISIS, which fired a Kornet antitank
missile at Bashiqah in Iraq.
Israel’s defense ties with Turkey came to an end in 2010, when relations between the countries broke down following the Turkish flotilla’s attempt to breech Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. •