Turkish Military Delegation In Israel For Drone Deal

Thursday June 24, 2010 07:51 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Turkish Military officials are currently in Israel to receive training and test four Israeli drones, Heron, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries which is owned by the Israeli government.

Israeli Heron Drone - Wikipedia

The visit came amidst reported tension between Israel and Turkey and after the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan, threatened to suspend all military cooperation with Israel after its deadly attack on the Turkish owned Mavi Marmara solidarity ship which was attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

A Turkish military delegation has arrived in Israel to test four Heron UAVs, manufactured by the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. The delegation arrived in Israel amid threats by the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to suspend Turkish military cooperation and deals with Israel.

The Turkish military official will remain in Israel for two weeks in order to conclude the deal. They arrived in Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening.

It is worth mentioning that six drones have already been handed to Turkey under this 190 Million USD deal that was signed in 2005.

Turkish Chief of Staff, Gen. Ilker Basbug, stated two days ago that Turkey started using the Israeli drones to gather intelligence on the movements of Kurdish rebels in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Basbug added that the Turkish military is using the drone in cooperation with the American military in Iraq to monitor the Turkish-Iraq borders in an effort to counter the fighters of the Kurdish Labor Party.

Turkey started using the Israeli drones in northern Iraq ten days ago.

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