NATO says it is expected to approve the deployment of
sophisticated AWACS surveillance aircraft to the Middle East in support
of the so-called anti-ISIS military campaign by the US and its allies.
On Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Western
military alliance will decide during its upcoming summit that its AWACS
aircraft would “provide information” to the US-led coalition purportedly
targeting Daesh (ISIS / ISIL) positions in Iraq and Syria.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
He was outlining the agenda of the two-day summit, which will open in the Polish capital, Warsaw, on Friday.
Officials of the military bloc have said the AWACS planes would use
Turkish or international skies, but they would be capable of peering
electronically into ISIS-held areas in Iraq and Syria.
NATO is not involved in the military campaign, but a number of alliance
members such as the US, France and the UK have been carrying out
airstrikes against what they call terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria
since 2014.
In late January, Stoltenberg said Washington had asked NATO to assist the US with AWACS surveillance aircraft in the Syria war.
AWACS is a radar system designed to detect aircraft, ships and vehicles
at long ranges and control and command the battle space in an air
engagement by directing fighter and attack aircraft strikes.
However, military experts have questioned the use of such a complicated
system against ISIS and other militants, as claimed by the US and NATO.
Such a deployment is expected to heighten NATO’s tensions with Russia,
which has been conducting air raids on terrorist bases inside Syria
since last September.
Stoltenberg also said NATO leaders will also discuss expanding a
mission aimed at providing training to Iraqi forces inside the Arab
country as well as Jordan.
Elsewhere on the agenda of the Warsaw summit, NATO leaders would
discuss a rise in the military alliance’s military budget, according to
Stoltenberg.
“The Warsaw Summit will renew our commitment to spend more on defense
and to spend better,” said the NATO chief, adding that the alliance’s
leaders will also “agree to further enhance our military presence in the
eastern” member states.
NATO’s eastward military buildup has bitterly angered Russia, which has
threatened unspecified measures to respond to the increased activities
by the Western military bloc.
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