-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Turkey seeks military ties with China Official visits Beijing, explores possible weapons deal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Editor's note: WorldNetDaily brings readers exclusive, up-to-the-minute global intelligence news and analysis from Geostrategy-Direct, a new online newsletter edited by veteran journalist Robert Morton and featuring the "Backgrounder" column compiled by Bill Gertz. Geostrategy-Direct is a subscription-based service produced by the publishers of WorldTribune.com, a free news service frequently linked by the editors of WorldNetDaily. © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com Another U.S. ally in the Middle East wants to develop military relations with China. This time it's Turkey. The government in Ankara is improving a range of ties with Beijing, and this includes the launching of defense cooperation. Turkey wants to explore joint defense projects and arms purchases with China. Other prospects include joint exercises and training. All of these areas were discussed last week during a 10-day visit by Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Huseyin Kivrikoglu. Kivrikoglu brought up with his Chinese hosts the prospect of purchasing unmanned air vehicles from Beijing. Officials said the Turkish commander invited China to bid in Ankara's UAV project. Turkey wants to buy nine such systems, and the Chinese CATIC has been requested to join the competition. Last year, the U.S. pressured Israel to give up much of its defense cooperation with China. The Bush administration is not expected to do the same with Turkey. First, the White House badly needs Turkey for the new U.S. policy of "smart sanctions" against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. More important, Turkey's relationship with Beijing is largely that of a consumer of Chinese defense systems. Israel was supplying advanced technology that was bolstering the Chinese regime. Iran, Russia have problems in sealing arms deal Iranian and Russian leaders have visited each other so many times and gushed so many warm words that you'd think they would finally agree on the huge weapons deal they have been discussing for years. Not exactly. Beyond the rhetoric, Moscow and Teheran can't agree on the estimated multi-billion dollar defense deal. Iran wants the best of Russia's aircraft, radar and anti-aircraft systems. A key request on the Iranian wish list is the advanced S-300V, the latest in air defense and which can also be used for missile defense. But Russia is taking its time for two reasons. The first is U.S. pressure on Moscow. The Bush administration has been under heavy pressure by Turkey and Gulf Arab states to stop the Russian S-300 sale to Teheran. Gulf officials have warned that the system would dash all of the plans by the Gulf Cooperation Council to establish regional defense. A second reason relates squarely to Iran. Russia doesn't want to rupture relations with Washington and end up getting stiffed by Teheran. Intelligence sources said Moscow still has not obtained the terms of repayment that it wants from Iran. This would mean years of waiting for Iran to pay its debt – something that has hampered Russia's construction of the Bushehr nuclear reactor project. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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