Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Ankara says Israel jettisoned fuel tanks in its territory

Ankara says Israel jettisoned fuel tanks in its territory  
 
By Barak Ravid and Amos Harel, Haaretz correspondents and agencies  
 
Turkey has asked Israel for clarification after finding two fuel tanks on
its territory near the Syrian border. The tanks allegedly belong to Israel
Air Force warplanes, a diplomatic source said yesterday. Turkey's Hurriyet
newspaper yesterday published photographs of what it said were fuel tanks
jettisoned by Israeli F-15Is sent to gather intelligence on Syrian
installations near the Turkish border. 
The jettisoned fuel tanks were discovered late on Thursday in the Turkish
provinces of Hatay and Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, hours after
Damascus had accused Israel of bombing its territory. Israel has declined
to comment on Syria's charge. 
The Prime Minister's Bureau refused to respond to the reports in the
Turkish media. However, government sources noted that Israel's envoy to
Ankara was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry and given a diplomatic
protest regarding the alleged IAF flyover of Syrian air space. The Turkish
Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that it "took a harsh view of the
invasion of Syrian air space by the IAF." The Foreign Ministry in
Jerusalem is expected to receive the Turkish letter of protest today and
to discuss possible responses to it. 
 
 
"We have asked Israel to explain what happened," a Turkish diplomatic
source told Reuters. The source said Turkish authorities were also trying
to establish whether Israeli warplanes had briefly violated Turkey's
airspace. 
The Hurriyet report cited unnamed "experts" as saying they believed the
Israeli warplanes had jettisoned extra fuel tanks in order to escape more
swiftly after Syria targeted them. A Western diplomat speaking to Reuters
in Damascus on Thursday offered a similar explanation of what had
occurred. Witnesses in the area of Tal al-Abiad near the Turkish border
where the reported bombing happened also said they spotted several fuel
tanks. 
No additional details were reported from Syria about the alleged incident,
although Syria said it was still considering its response. Damascus has
said that Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over northern Syria
before dawn Thursday, then dropped munitions onto deserted areas after
being shot at by Syria's air defenses. It is still unclear exactly what
happened, and Syria has stopped short of accusing Israel of purposely
bombing its territory. 
The Israel Defense Forces has lowered its state of alert on the Syrian
border compared to last week. Israeli defense officials said over the
weekend that although the situation on the Syrian border is still of
concern, it is unlikely that Syrian President Bashar Assad was headed for
war in the immediate future. 
Cabinet ministers and senior IDF officers refused to comment on or off the
record on the alleged incident. However, they expressed their satisfaction
with developments and the way decisions had been taken during the crisis
with Syria in recent weeks. The defense establishment does not rule out a
Syrian attempt to respond to the alleged incident by missile fire. Syria
reportedly might also respond later, possibly through terror groups
identified with it. 
Syria's foreign minister is to arrive in Ankara for pre-planned talks on
Monday with his Turkish counterpart at which time Turkey will raise the
Israeli warplane issue, diplomats say. In Washington, the U.S. State
Department has also had no specific comment on the incident, citing the
lack of details about what happened. Some officials suggested the
administration of President George W. Bush did not want to stoke tensions
further by taking sides between Israel and Syria. 
The incident early Thursday came after a summer of building tensions that
have fed worries of a military conflict erupting between Syria and Israel.
Damascus accused Israel last month of seeking a pretext for war, and
Israel is keeping a close watch on Syrian troop movements. Both sides have
insisted they want no conflict along the disputed frontier. But Syria
fears it is being squeezed out of a U.S.-brokered Mideast peace conference
planned for November and will be left at a disadvantage in the standoff
with Israel.  
-- 
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