Turkey announced on Friday it will host a NATO early-warning radar system, which the United States said would go online this year to help spot missile threats coming from outside Europe. Turkey, with NATO's second biggest military, has a geo-strategic importance to the alliance dating back to its role as a front-line state in the Cold War era. But its value to NATO has risen as Middle East states with anti-Western policies, like Iran, have developed their missile capabilities. "Turkey's hosting of this element will constitute our country's contribution to the defence system being developed in the framework of NATO's new strategic concept," a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement. "It will strengthen NATO's defence capacity and our national defence system," the spokesman said, adding the radar system was being allocated by the United States. At the Pentagon, spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said the radar system would link into ships equipped with ballistic missile defences operating in the Mediterranean. He said it was an outgrowth of the agreement at a NATO summit in Lisbon last November, where leaders approved a new mission statement for the Western military alliance, committing among other things to missile defence. Commenting on a question about the radar's potential focus on Iran, Lapan said: "We made no secret of the fact that Iran's missile program is of concern." "But again the idea is a protective system that would protect those NATO allies from ballistic missile threats emanating outside (Europe), whether they came from a non-state actor -- whatever the source is," he said. TIES WITH IRAN, RUSSIA In recent years, Turkey has sought stronger ties with fellow Muslim states in the Middle East, including Iran, to rebalance a foreign policy that had previously leaned heavily toward the West. But it has split with Iran as of late on Syria's violent crackdown on dissent. Turkey, seen as a bridge between the Middle East and the West, has become increasingly critical of Iranian ally Syria, with Turkish President Abdullah Gul saying he had lost confidence in the country. Turkey has also sought stronger ties with Russia, which has said a NATO missile defence system could threaten its security if it develops the capability to down Russian nuclear missiles. -- SPA
