Turkey to ask for NATO support on border with Syria

NATO said Monday it would urgently consider a request from Turkey to deploy Patriot anti-missile batteries on its border with Syria as the EU explored how to assist the new Syrian opposition coalition. Ministers were examining a French call for the 27-nation EU to formally recognise the opposition National Coalition as the sole representative of the Syrian people, as well as a controversial proposal from Paris to arm the rebels. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said at the close of the talks that all his European Union counterparts had expressed "much sympathy vis-a-vis the coalition". "I think we will invite the Coalition leaders to our next meeting (in December) to allow them to talk to all of the foreign ministers, which will be highly symbolic," Fabius said. On Monday, Italy joined France in recognising the National Coalition, becoming the second Western country to do so since the opposition formed the group at talks in Qatar on November 11 after 20 months of conflict that activists say has killed more than 39,000 people. Britain is expected to fine-tune its position on the new opposition bloc on Tuesday. But as clashes raged across Syria, the main Islamist groups in the northern city of Aleppo, a key frontline in the civil war, said they rejected the National Coalition. In Brussels, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the 28-member alliance, which includes Turkey, had received no formal request from Ankara to deploy Patriot missiles along its troubled border, but that if one was made "we will consider that as a matter of urgency". German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere earlier anticipated an imminent request from Turkey, whose border villages have been hit by artillery fire as forces loyal to Damascus battle rebels seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Germany and the Netherlands are the two main European nations that possess the medium-range ground-to-air missiles made by US group Raytheon. NATO deployed the missiles in Turkey during the 1991 Gulf war and in 2003 during the Iraqi conflict. "The situation on the Syria-Turkey border is of great concern," said Rasmussen. "We have all the plans ready to defend and protect Turkey if needed. The plans will be adjusted if necessary to ensure effective protection of Turkey." Rasmussen said there was currently no question of imposing a no-fly zone with the back-up of the Patriot missiles. Syria headed the agenda as EU foreign and defence ministers flew into Brussels for a day of talks that also touched on the conflict between Israel and Gaza. On the ground in Syria, fighting flared along the Turkish border on Monday as rebels took full control of a large army base in the northern province of Aleppo that had been besieged for weeks, a military source and a watchdog group said. The main Islamist rebel groups in Aleppo province, including Al-Nusra Front, meanwhile rejected the newly formed opposition bloc. "We, the fighting squads of Aleppo city and province, unanimously reject the conspiratorial project called the National Coalition and announce our consensus to establish an Islamic state" in Syria, a spokesman said in an Internet video posted Monday. "We reject any external coalitions or councils imposed on us at home from any party whatsoever," said the unidentified speaker, who sat at the head of a long conference table with at least 30 other men and a black Islamist flag behind him. But Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, the head of the main rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) in embattled Aleppo, told AFP that the statement did not represent the opinion of all rebel groups in the province. "These groups represent a number of military factions on the ground and reflect their position, but not all military forces in Aleppo agree with this," the defected former army colonel told AFP by phone. "The military council has announced its support for the National Coalition and is collaborating with them," Okaidi added. The National Coalition aims to present a united front to the international community and is lobbying for weapons to help topple the Assad regime. France's Fabius last week issued a more controversial call to lift an EU embargo on delivering arms to Syria in order to arm the rebels. But EU diplomats pointed out that lifting the bloc's current embargo, agreed last year, would require unanimity, while delivering arms to one side would be a highly complex matter. Rejecting the idea out of hand, Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said his country "does not arm people who are fighting."