Sept. 12 with a report that three Turkish Navy frigates are to sail for the eastern Mediterranean "to ensure freedom of navigation and confront Israeli warships if
necessary."
The threat bluntly applied to Israel's naval enforcement of its UN-approved blockade of the Gaza Strip.
DEBKAfile's military sources report that this is more than a threat of belligerence against Israeli naval shipping; it is also an attempt to dictate the terms of its threatened military engagement at sea with Israel and arbitrarily lay down the outer limits of Israel's territorial waters. One of its goals is to deprive Israel's deep sea gas wells of naval protection.
Turkish naval sources report that the frigates assigned the mission against Israel belong to its Southern Sea Area Command.
DEBKAfile reported earlier Monday, Sept. 12:
While Egypt and Israel acted to cool the crisis in relations sparked by last Friday's mob attack on the Israeli embassy, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan threatened another inflammatory speech against Israel during his Monday visit, Sept. 12 - this one from Tahrir Square in a bid to buy the popularity of the Arab street. Jerusalem and Washington are concerned that it will have the effect of stirring up anti-Israel riots in Egypt and Jordan, Israel' second peace partner, as well as encouraging the Palestinian terrorist Jihad Islami lurking in Sinai to proceed with its threatened cross-border attack.
Sunday, Sept. 11, the military rulers of Egypt instructed the local media to tone down their coverage of the mob attack on the Israeli embassy Friday night. They announced that 130 rioters would be put on trial. Israel too made every effort to play the episode down by focusing attention on the "courageous stand" taken by the six security guards "only a door away from death" in order to distract attention from the absence of an Israeli ambassador in Cairo after thirty years of normal relations. Read the rest on: Debkafile
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