U.S. to Shun Military Drills in Turkey

[unhappycamper]

U.S. to Shun Military Drills in Turkey
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Published: 1 Sep 2010 14:20

ANKARA - The United States will not take part in upcoming air drills in Turkey, a U.S. embassy official said Sept. 1, as media reports said Washington had conditioned its presence on Israeli attendance.

The U.S. Air Force will not join the October exercises, the official told AFP, saying they had already taken part in the previous edition of the drills in June.

The official would not comment on Turkish media reports that Washington had said it would shun the drills if Ankara failed to invite also Israel, excluded from the exercises amid bilateral tensions with Turkey, once a close ally.

The U.S. message was conveyed to Ankara after invitations were sent out to several countries but not Israel for the "Anatolian Eagle" drills, held since 2001 in central Turkey, unnamed sources told the Hurriyet newspaper.

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Last week, senior Turkish diplomats travelled to Washington in a bid to dispel fears that the Islamist-rooted government is taking NATO's sole mainly Muslim member away from the West.