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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran will definitely strike Turkey if attacked |
| 2011-12-12 |
| Iranian official reiterates anger over Turkish agreement to house NATO facilities, threatens "grave consequences." An Iranian security official said that Iran would "definitely" strike NATO positions in Turkey if it were attacked, according to a Monday report by the Turkish daily Hurriyet. “We are closely monitoring the relations with Turkey in the National Security Commission of the parliament. Iran has warned Turkey before that the deployment of the system will have grave consequences." said Hossein Ibrahimi, vice-chairman of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission. Ibrahimi also referenced a similar threat made at the end of November by Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division. "General Hajizadeh’s remarks are entirely true and when we are attacked, it is our natural right to defend ourselves,” Hurriyet quoted Ibrahimi as saying. Tehran has made clear its displeasure at Turkey's September decision to deploy a NATO missile early warning system, which Iran sees as a US ploy to protect Israel from any counter-attack should the Jewish state target Iran's nuclear facilities. Once-warm relations between Iran and Turkey have been strained this year due to the missile shield and Ankara's outspoken criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad's violent crackdown on popular unrest. Turkey and Iran, the Middle East's two major non-Arab Muslim states, are vying for influence in the post-Arab Spring region and Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's military adviser accused Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan of setting its foreign policy to please Washington. |
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| #3 Certainly the Islamists have jailed a great many of those trained to call upon that spirit. Especially given all the claims that Muslims do not fight other Muslims (a canard of the first water, but never mind). |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-12-12 20:27 |
| #2 the Islamist influence might cut into that "fighting spirit" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-12-12 19:32 |
| #1 I remember reading "Soldier" by Anthony Herbert, in which he describes his unit in Korea disintegrating, and him falling back as (I think ) a Private, and somehow ending up on a hilltop defended by a Turkish troops. In the end, the Turks ran out of ammo - so they fixed bayonets, and launched a massive bayonet charge downhill, against the very surprised Chinese attackers - an attack that drove through the attacking forces - and back to friendly lines. Herbert's conclusion: "If you ever have to be with a military unit that is out of ammunition, and surrounded by a massive number of screaming enemy attackers - go with the Turks - they mean business. Now - that was about 60 years ago - let's hope that the Turks' fighting spirit lives on. The Iranians couldn't get anywhere 30 years ago, fighting for eight years against an Iraqi Army that folded in 15 minutes against Desert Storm formations. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2011-12-12 19:18 |