MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Today’s Zaman – “Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Necdet Özel is slated to meet with his American counterpart, Martin Dempsey, in Washington on Wednesday, a meeting which comes as continued fighting in Syria undermines hope that a UN cease-fire plan can succeed.

The two are widely expected to discuss a possible NATO role in the conflict, an idea which both states have floated amid escalating violence at Turkey’s southern border. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is rumored to have discussed the Syrian issue with Özel during a special three-hour meeting this weekend, told an Italian newspaper on Monday that he is ‘prepared to ask NATO for a military intervention.’

Erdoğan criticized the way the newspaper put the headline of the interview and said he doesn’t endorse the misleading headline. He added that the text of the interview says no such thing.

US envoy to NATO Ivo Daalder told reporters on Tuesday that Turkey has not demanded a military assistance due to the situation in Syria so far but said the NATO’s only Muslim member was informing NATO member states about what is happening along its Syria border.

Erdoğan told a joint news conference with his Italian counterpart, Mario Monti, that NATO could invoke Art. 5 of the alliance in case Turkey is under attack but he said this is not the case at the moment. Art. 5 stipulates common NATO defense in case one of the members of the alliance was attacked.

Daalder added that if any attack is staged on Turkey or any other member countries, all NATO member states, including the US, will be ready to respond, he said.” Read more.

Report: Syria Moving Hundreds Of High-Caliber Launchers, Scud Missiles To Israeli and Turkish Borders – “Jordanian news site Ahbar Baladna reports that western spy satellites have recently spotted movements of Syrian heavy missile launchers northward and southward, toward Syria’s borders with Turkey and Israel. The site says hundreds of high-caliber launchers are being moved, and that these could only be long range Scud missile launchers. Syria has threatened in the past that in the event of foreign military intervention on its soil, it will not hesitate to fire missiles at Israel and Turkey in order to ignite a large scale regional war.” Read more.

Flashback: Assad Threatens Israel With Missiles if Syria is Attacked – “Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered the heads of his military to hit Israel with a barrage of missiles should there be any foreign intervention in Syria, a Jordanian news website reported on Saturday. According to the site, Our Country’s News, Assad gave the order in a secret meeting with the heads of the Syrian army last Thursday, in light of his fear of a U.S. military strike in Syria. The report said that Assad ordered that if any military action is started against Syria, the Syrian army should respond by firing missiles in Israel …” Read more.