US official to visit Turkey over shield plan, terror

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will visit Turkey to discuss a U.S. radar system to be installed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO's missile shield project, a report said here on Tuesday. Turkish Daily News quoted diplomatic sources as saying that Leon Panetta will visit Turkey later this week for talks that are expected to focus on enhancing defense cooperation and the ongoing fight against terrorism. The radar system has prompted Iranian reactions against Turkey. Vice Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi warned that in case of any attack on Iran, it will definitely hit the defense system to be based in Turkey's Malatya province. Panetta's visit comes just two weeks before the end of the year, by which time a U.S. radar system will be installed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO's missile shield project. According to the report, "The fight against the PKK [outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] will be a priority on the agenda for talks with Panetta." The report added that the meetings scheduled on Dec. 15-16 would also touch upon a 111 million U.S. dollar deal between Ankara and Washington for U.S. drones that would be transferred from Iraq to Turkey to provide surveillance support in the fight against the PKK, as well as three AH-1 Super Cobra helicopters that the Pentagon will sell to Turkey. The U.S. deployed four MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles ( UAV) at Turkey's southern airbase of Incirlik last month. The Cobra helicopters will be dispatched to Turkey in early January, the report said. Turkey has been asking the United States for purchasing four MQ- 1 Predator surveillance drones and two armed versions of the UAV, the MQ-9 Reaper, but Washington has yet to respond because of its concerns that the sale would be vetoed in the U.S. Congress due to Ankara's policies regarding Israel. Panetta is also expected to raise the issue of Turkey's strained relations with Israel. He recently called on Israel to find a way to normalize its relations with Turkey, Egypt and Jordan in order to break the isolation surrounding it and sit at the table with Palestinians.