UK flexes NATO muscles over Turkish jet

The Daily Star reported that British fighter jets are on stand-by to launch a strike on Syria while Turkish President Abdullah Gul has admitted the Turkish Phantom jet fighter might have violated Syria’s airspace.

On Friday 22 June, Syria announced that its air defence forces shot down a Turkish F-4 Phantom in the Syrian airspace. One day later, in an interview with Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency, Gul admitted that the Turkish jet fighter might have violated Syria’s airspace.

“It is routine for jet fighters to sometimes fly in and out over [national] borders…when you consider their speed over the sea”, the news agency quoted Gul.

This comes as the Convention of International Civil Aviation, which establishes rules of airspace, clearly states that any “affected state”, whose airspace has been violated by “a foreign aircraft”, “would have the legal right” to shoot down “the offending aircraft”.

Nevertheless, Britain did not hesitate to condemn Syria’s “action in shooting down a Turkish military plane,” getting prepared for a NATO-led strike.

Britain’s measures make good sense against the backdrop of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s joke with his fellow Tory MPs saying “Where shall I invade next? I’ve done Libya” as he stopped in front of a map of the world at his Downing Street flat.

Moreover, several reports have taken the lid off Britain’s role in assisting Syria’s armed rebels in their bloody battle against civilians. Earlier this year, DEBKAfile, an Israeli military intelligence, reported that British troops were in Syria leading armed groups. Earlier this month, The Daily Star also revealed that Britain’s Special Air Service (SAS) and MI6 agents were setting up camps in Syria to help armed rebels in case a civil war would break out in the country.

ISH/MA/HE

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