Syria to gain access to US, Israeli military technology

[darrels joy]

Syria to gain access to US, Israeli military technology



There's more to Syrian-Turkish military cooperation than ground exercises. On Monday, Syria's SANA news agency reported that Syria and Turkey have signed a military cooperation agreement "in the fields of defense industries and the exchange of technical and scientific information."

This has gotten the Israelis quite nervous (yes, I am sole-sourcing DEBKA, but what they're reporting in my quote seems obvious):

DEBKAfile's military sources report that the signing and the exercise are major landmarks on the shrinking road of military and trading ties between Turkey and Israel. In 2009, Ankara pared exchanges down to $2.2 billion in 2009 and expanded its trade with Syria to $2.6 billion.

Israel is now in a hurry to slash its military exchanges with Turkey to prevent the leakage of military secrets to an avowed Arab enemy.

Ankara is furthermore defaulting on payments for military purchases and other contracts. It has piled up a debt of several million dollars to Israel's military and air industries, in payment for a $5 billion deal to build a Mark 3 Chariot plant in Turkey. Production of 1,000 Israeli tanks, to have been Turkey's main theater tank, should have begun in early 2009.

Construction is now halted.

Israel will also discontinue sales of its world-class unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and sharply reduce its military ties with Turkey which go back to the 1960s.

In addition, Haaretz reported last week that Syria and Turkey may cooperate on a joint nuclear energy project.

But Israel is not the only country that has sold sophisticated military equipment to the Turks in reliance upon Turkey's status as a NATO member and as a 'secular' Muslim country. As some of you may recall, Turkey is also a member of the joint strike force that is developing the American F-35 stealth-enabled fighter jet. That means that Syria will gain access to American technology in addition to gaining access to Israeli technology - all without having given the West a single thing on its wish list.

Thus far, there has been no reaction from the United States to news of the Turkish-Syrian exercise. But we all know the United States is in good hands. What could go wrong?

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/200...s-israeli.html