{"id":34983,"date":"2019-03-12T04:23:04","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T04:23:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34983"},"modified":"2019-03-12T04:23:04","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T04:23:04","slug":"us-plan-for-military-deployment-costs-worries-turkey-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=34983","title":{"rendered":"US plan for military deployment costs worries Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nANKARA:\u00a0The US plans to demand that allies hosting American troops cover the full cost of their deployment and pay an additional amount, Bloomberg reported on Friday.<\/p>\n

\nThe idea, which US President Donald Trump has floated for months, has raised concerns in fellow NATO member Turkey, where American troops are stationed in the Incirlik air base, 250 miles southeast of Ankara.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAnalysts say the plan may cause a further deterioration in US-Turkish relations, and may trigger a debate in Turkey about whether the presence of American troops is desirable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIn a separate move, the Pentagon recently warned Turkey that it could be banned from buying the US F-35 and Patriot defense systems if it goes through with plans to buy Russia\u2019s S-400 air defense system.<\/p>\n

\nZiya Meral, senior resident fellow at the British Army\u2019s Center for Historical Analysis and Conflict Research, said Turkey\u2019s Incirlik is used by the US for its own purposes, not to defend Turkey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIf Washington implements its plan regarding deployment costs, \u201cit would add fuel to the fire of voices in Turkey asking Ankara to put an end to the US presence in Incirlik,\u201d Meral told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nCombined with the crisis over the S-400s, and strained US-Turkish relations, he said it may trigger a strategic rift that would be the final nail in the coffin of bilateral ties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis would not only harm US military operations and reach in the region \u2026 but would also be a major win for Russia and a blow to NATO\u2019s integrity,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIncirlik has been in use since December 1954, when Turkey and the US signed a joint-use agreement. It was also used by coalition forces during the first Gulf War for combat missions over Iraq.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe base is currently home to the 39th Air Base Wing of the US Air Force, and holds B61-type hydrogen bombs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nIn 2015, Turkey authorized the use of the strategically important base as a launching pad for aerial operations by the US-led anti-Daesh coalition in Syria. The base is believed to host about 2,000 American service members.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nCalls to close it, especially by Turkish nationalists, have increased recently as relations between Ankara and Washington have deteriorated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAnkara has warned several times that it would consider denying the US access to the base, which has also been used as leverage against Germany.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAfter Turkey refused to permit German MPs to visit the base, Berlin decided to relocate its military planes from Incirlik to Jordan in 2017.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nProf. Serhat Guvenc, from Istanbul\u2019s Kadir Has University, said Jordan\u2019s Al-Asrak air base has always been seen by the US as an alternative to Incirlik.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt wouldn\u2019t provide similar advantages like the Incirlik air base, but the US may renounce its presence in Turkey considering the increased political burdens,\u201d he told Arab News.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nAsking Turkey for a premium for the presence of US troops on its soil is a non-starter, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIn that case, Ankara may either request that the US leave its soil completely, or decrease its military presence to a minimum,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nBut Oubai Shahbandar, a defense analyst and fellow at the New America think tank\u2019s International Security Program, said US military cooperation with Turkey in Syria will be as crucial ever with Daesh\u2019s defeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIran-backed militias in Iraq want to close down the US Al-Asad air base in the Iraqi desert, which could make Incirlik as important as ever to support kinetic strikes against Daesh terror remnants,\u201d he told Arab News. A satisfactory deal will eventually be reached between Washington and Ankara, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ANKARA:\u00a0The US plans to demand that allies hosting American troops cover the full cost of their deployment and pay an additional amount, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The idea, which US President Donald Trump has floated for months, has raised concerns in fellow NATO member Turkey, where American troops are stationed in the Incirlik air base,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}