The Turkish presidential administration has denied reports of the transfer to Israel of data from a NATO radar base in the country.
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Allegations of data transfers from NATO’s Kurecik radar base in Turkey’s eastern Malatya emerged on social media following tensions between Israel and Iran.
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“The allegations regarding the Kurecik radar base that appeared on some social networks after Iran’s statements about Israel are not true. The Kurecik radar base in Malatya was established in the interests of our national security and is aimed at protecting the population, territory and forces of NATO allies,” – a statement from the Center for Combating Disinformation under the Communications Directorate of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Turkey says.
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“Information obtained from this radar system is shared and used for alliance defense under existing NATO procedures. Radar information is not shared with non-NATO allies such as Israel,” the statement said.
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On April 1, the Syrian Ministry of Defense announced an Israeli airstrike on the building of the Iranian Consulate General in the Syrian capital Damascus. The consulate building also housed the residence of Iranian Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic Hossein Akbari – the latter was not injured during the attack. According to a statement by the Syrian defense ministry, the consulate building was completely destroyed as a result of a missile attack.
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According to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (elite units of the Armed Forces), the Israeli strike killed seven IRGC officers, including two senior general advisers – Mohammad Reza Zahedi, commander of the IRGC Quds Force in Syria and Lebanon, as well as his deputy, Brigadier General Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi.
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The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated that it “reserves the right” to respond to the Israeli airstrike on the Consulate General in Damascus, as well as to determine exactly how to “punish the aggressor.”
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also stressed that Israel will pay a high price for this attack. Leaders of resistance movements in the region expressed the need to use all possible resources in the confrontation with Israel to support the Palestinian Hamas movement and other armed Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip.
