{"id":41812,"date":"2019-12-04T09:22:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T09:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41812"},"modified":"2019-12-04T09:22:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T09:22:36","slug":"egyptian-government-seeks-to-do-away-with-popular-tuk-tuks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=41812","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian government seeks to do away with popular tuk-tuks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nLONDON: NATO leaders meet on Wednesday in the UK for crunch talks amid concerns that Turkey\u2019s membership of the organization is \u201cunraveling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nHigh on the agenda will be Ankara\u2019s aggressive policies in the region, particularly in Syria, and its decision to purchase a Russian missile system both politically and operationally out of sync with the alliance.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey joined NATO, an alliance of countries serving as a bulwark to the Soviet Union, in 1952. As part of its membership, Turkey hosts a US airbase where dozens of American nuclear bombs are stored.<\/p>\n

\nBut Ankara\u2019s relations with other NATO members and particularly the US have become increasingly strained, leading to some experts suggesting its place in the alliance is under threat.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWhat we can see so far is Turkey\u2019s relationship with NATO is slowly unraveling, even prior to the Turkish military incursion in northern Syria,\u201d Fadi Hakura, manager of the Turkey Project at Chatham House, told Arab News.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara launched an offensive into north-eastern Syria on Oct. 6, which, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is meant to expel Kurdish militias.<\/p>\n

\nAlso, ties between allies Ankara and Berlin deteriorated sharply in the run-up to Turkey\u2019s April 16 referendum that handed Erdogan stronger presidential powers.<\/p>\n

\nOne of the first signs that the alliance\u2019s relationship with Turkey was in serious trouble came in July 2017, when Germany began to pull its troops out of the Incirlik air base where they had supported international operations against Daesh following a row with Ankara over access.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey prevented German lawmakers to visit roughly 250 troops stationed there, saying that Berlin needs to improve its attitude first.<\/p>\n

\nGermany has expressed concern about the widespread security crackdown that followed a failed coup in Turkey in 2016. \u201cIt\u2019s quite remarkable that a NATO member, like Germany, had to move its pilots and fighter jets from a NATO partner, namely Turkey, to a non-NATO member, and that is Jordan,\u201d Hakura said.<\/p>\n

\nMeanwhile, NATO members, led by the US, are expected to discuss Ankara\u2019s purchase of the S-400 missile defense system bought from Russia.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara and Washington have been at loggerheads over Turkey\u2019s purchase of the \u00a0 system, which Washington says is not compatible with NATO defenses and poses a threat to its F-35 stealth fighter jets, which Lockheed Martin Corp. is developing.<\/p>\n

\nInfuriating many members of Congress, Turkey shrugged off the threat of US sanctions and began receiving its first S-400 deliveries in July. In response, Washington removed Turkey from the F-35 program.<\/p>\n

\nTensions escalated when Turkey tested its S-400s up against US-made F-16 jets last week, following months of warnings from allies.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cSo far, the Senate Republicans, in particular Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have followed the wishes of President Trump and avoided any congressional sanctions against Turkey. But I think, should Turkey proceed with the activation of the S-400 Russian anti-missile defense system, which looks extremely likely to happen, the Congress well enact some tough financial and economic sanctions against Turkey,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\nHe added the sanctions are quite \u201cserious and, according to the draft bills, may include financial sanctions against senior members of the Turkish government, sanctions preventing the US financial system, financial institutions or individuals dealing with certain ministries in Turkey, such as the ministry of defense, from purchasing Turkish debt.<\/p>\n

\nHakura also said Turkey is importing its bilateral and multilateral disputes with Europe and in the Middle East into the NATO summit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\u201cTurkey has so far vetoed or prevented NATO from approving a military plan to defend the Baltic region against the perceived Russian military threat, because in return, Turkey is demanding NATO endorsement of its military incursion into northern Syria, and that is not going to happen. NATO to will not provide any cover for Turkey\u2019s military incursion into northern Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nMoreover, Greece\u2019s prime minister will meet Erdogan on Wednesday in an attempt to ease frictions over energy exploration and Ankara\u2019s deal with Libya\u2019s Tripoli-based government on Mediterranean maritime zones, in another issue that Turkey has \u201cimported\u201d into the summit.<\/p>\n

\nLibya and Turkey signed an agreement on boundaries in the Mediterranean last week that could complicate Ankara\u2019s disputes over offshore energy exploration with nations including Greece.<\/p>\n

\nAthens says the accord is geographically absurd because it ignores the presence of the Greek island of Crete between the coasts of Turkey and Libya.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI think that Greece in particular wants NATO to take a stand against Turkey over its maritime agreement withLibya,\u201d Hakura added.<\/p>\n

\n*With Reuters<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON: NATO leaders meet on Wednesday in the UK for crunch talks amid concerns that Turkey\u2019s membership of the organization is \u201cunraveling.\u201d High on the agenda will be Ankara\u2019s aggressive policies in the region, particularly in Syria, and its decision to purchase a Russian missile system both politically and operationally out of sync with the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41812","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=41812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}