Posted on 05/30/2016 8:23:16 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel would upgrade its ties with the 28-member NATO military alliance by opening a permanent mission to its Brussels headquarters.
"I declare that Israel will accept the invitation and open an office, in the near future," Netanyahu said at the start of a cabinet meeting.
"The countries of the world want to cooperate with us because of our determined fight against terror, our technological know-how, our intelligence network and other things," his office quoted him as saying.
The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement late Tuesday that NATO had invited the Jewish state to "open an office at NATO headquarters in Brussels and complete the process of accrediting its representatives to NATO."
An Israeli expert told AFP that the invitation was a result of pressure by other NATO members on Turkey, which joined in 1952, to drop its veto on closer alliance ties with its former ally.
"It's a Turkish confidence-building measure vis-a-vis Israel," said Tommy Steiner, an expert on NATO-Israel ties at the Institute for Policy and Strategy near Tel Aviv.
"Since the introduction of the new (NATO) partnership policy in 2014 Israel was formally invited," he said. "But Israel never did that because there was a Turkish veto on such a measure."
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
The pressure on Turkey to not veto this relationship with Israel and NATO must have been huge.
This is a positive step between NATO and Israel.
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