US Denies Giving Turkey Ultimatum Over Israel

Report Says US Threatened to Pull Arms Deals With NATO Ally

The White House today rejected rumors that they had threatened to scrap massive arms supply deals with close ally and fellow NATO member Turkey in retaliation for rising tensions between the nation and Israel.

Turkey and Israel are longtime allies, but tensions have been on the rise between the two for awhile now, and were inflamed particularly by Israel’s May 31 attack on the Mavi Marmara, and the killing of nine aid workers on board the Turkish ship.

US Congressional officials have vowed to make Turkey “pay” for criticizing the killings of their citizens by Israeli commandos, and also because Turkey tried to broker a diplomatic deal aimed at calming US threats to attack Iran.

Though the White House confirmed that they brought up those issues with Turkey, they insisted that there was no such ultimatum made, and considering President Obama’s determination to increase America’s weapons sales abroad, it seems like this is one thing the administration is unlikely to dump, no matter what political gains they might make for doing so.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.