On
Syria,
As UN Moves
Toward
Monitors,
Turkey Talks
NATO
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
April 12 -- As
the UN
Security
Council moves
to negotiation
a resolution
to send an
advance team
of monitors to
Syria, the
"incidents" on
the Syrian
border with
Turkey
continue to
reverberate.
US Ambassador
Susan Rice, as
president of
the Security
Council for
April, began
her read out
of Kofi
Annan's closed
door
video briefing
by referring
to the April 9
cross border
firing.
Inner
City Press
asked
Ambassador
Rice about
Turkey's
letter to the
Security
Council
reporting the
incident, and
Turkish
leadership's
talk that NATO
Article 5
might be
invoked, that
an attack on
one NATO
member is an
attack on all.
Rice
replied that
Turkey has not
yet formally
invoked
Article 5,
only notified
of the
incident. She
was asked
about Syria's
criticism of
the US
providing
communications
equipment to
the
opposition,
and replied
that only
Syria is
violating
Annan's Six
Point Plan.
But what about
Saudi
Arabia and
Qatar moving
to pay the
salaries of
the Free
Syrian Army?
Inner
City Press
asked Syrian
Ambassador
Bashar
Ja'afari about
Turkey's NATO
argument.
He replied
that Turkey is
hosting armed
groups. He
said that a
group
came across
the border and
attacked a
police station
"over
there," and
the Syrian
forces
"retaliated."
We'll see
- watch this
site.
From
the US Mission
transcript:
Inner
City
Pres: About
the April 9th
incident on
the Turkish
border that
you began
with: Turkey
has said that
this might
call into play
Article 5 of
NATO, that an
attack on one
is an attack
on all. Has
the
Council
received any
letter from
Turkey and
what does the
U.S. think
of that?
Ambassador
Rice:
I am not aware
of-maybe my
colleagues can
correct me-of
a
Turkish
letter, except
to initially
report the
incident. I'm
not
aware of a
letter that
specifically
mentions
Article 5 of
NATO unless
it's come in,
and I haven't
yet had the
opportunity to
see it. I'm
aware of press
reports that
Turkish
officials have
mentioned
that,
were there to
be sustained
violence and
attacks on
Turkish
territory,
that they feel
it necessary
to invoke
Article 5.
That was not
raised
nor has it
been discussed
in the
Security
Council.
, 
