Turkey conditionally approves NATO missile shield

Turkey indicated Thursday during a meeting of NATO ministers that it could approve the deployment of a proposed US-led anti-missile system on Turkish soil, though it expressed reservations about the project.

"We demanded that Iran and Syria not be cited as 'threats' in NATO's official documents on the planned defensive shield," Turkish Foreign Ministry officials told the Hurriyet Daily News. "Also, the deployment of the shield should cover the territory of all NATO allies, as well as the entire territory of Turkey."

The defense and foreign ministers of NATO member countries gathered in Brussels on Thursday to discuss a new "strategic concept" that will shape the alliance's new vision to face new threats.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul attended the event, where they met with their US counterparts, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, to talk about extending the alliance's missile-defense system against ballistic threats from Iran and North Korea.

Ankara told the US officials that if defense is the purpose of the system, no nations should be named in NATO documents as targets, since that would provoke those countries, according to the same diplomatic sources.

"In that case, Turkey could face problems with its neighbors due to the missile shield," diplomatic sources told the Daily News.

The technical discussions on the issue will continue until the NATO summit November 19-20 in Brussels, where a decision is expected to be made.

"This is not a reservation, but the conditions needed for negotiation. We are negotiating the terms of it, and naturally parties are presenting their opinions," Defense Minister Gonul told reporters Friday.