By Bill Koenig
The New York Times wrote that leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran convened at a security summit meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday. This display of regional power appeared to be designed to test the United States just one day before a scheduled American-backed debate in the United Nations Security Council on imposing tighter sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.
Ahmadinejad was to meet separately at the conference on Tuesday with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
Mr. Putin, speaking at the conference said, “I hold the opinion that this resolution should not be unnecessary, should not put Iran’s leadership or the Iranian people into difficulty.”
The Guardian wrote: “Israel’s relations with Ankara — military, economic, and tourist (Israelis once flocked to Turkey) — have been sacrificed on the altar of Turkey’s retrograde aspiration to lead the Islamic world and establish itself along with Iran as an alternative to American power. Turkey is once again turning eastward.
“Spurned by the EU, where it has applied for membership and ruled by an Islamist party with delusions of grandeur, Turkey is determined to lead the Muslim world once more and is promoting a clash of civilisations in order to compete strategically with the U.S. Turkey is no longer a friend, but not yet an enemy, of the U.S. It is a ‘frenemy,’ writes Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations.
“Let’s hope that Ankara’s Islamist rulers pull back from the brink represented by its risky and irresponsible policies,” Cook says.
The USS Harry S. Truman is headed to join the 6th Fleet sailing off the Pakistan coast, in the Indian Ocean, where its F/A-18s will support troops in Afghanistan. On the way, three of the destroyers in the carrier group will peel off to carry out anti-piracy patrols off the Somali coast.
“France cannot give up the struggle against terrorism and terrorists,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after touring France’s flagship Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier on Thursday, which was moored off Toulon, southern France.
“We must help the Afghans until they are able themselves to guarantee their security and development,” he said. “We must keep up our fight against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.”
Sarkozy announced that the aircraft carrier would be deployed to the Gulf region and the Indian Ocean before the end of this year.
