NATO is attempting to force the Lebanese government to turn over to it base rights at the strategic airfield at Kleiat (Qolaiat) in northern Lebanon for the use of the UN observer force being deployed to Syria. Kleiat is located close to Lebanon’s northern border with Syria.
Kleiat airbase has long been sought after by the U.S., NATO, and now, the UN.
On January 24, 2012, WMR reported: “WMR’s sources in Beirut are reporting that NATO is pressuring the Lebanese government to reopen a small airport in northern Lebanon for international traffic ‘as soon as possible.’”
As with the earlier request from NATO, Lebanon’s government, which includes members of the pro-Syrian Hezbollah party, is resisting the UN’s attempt to secure base rights at Kleiat.
Syria has agreed to accept up to 250 UN observers, although it stressed the observer force should include officers from impartial countries like Brazil, South Africa, India, and Russia.
In 2007, WMR was the first to report on the Bush administration’s plans to build a NATO base in northern Lebanon near the Syrian border. In April 2007, U.S., German, and Turkish officers surveyed Kleiat airport in northern Lebanon, near Tripoli, the scene of severe fighting between ‘Al Qaeda’-linked Fatah al-Islam guerrillas and Lebanese army units, the latter supplied with weapons from the United States. The assassinated Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was known to be strongly opposed to the planned American base in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is coming under increased pressure from members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) government over his support for a NATO protection zone in Syria along its border with Turkey. Increasingly, Erdogan is being seen by more nationalist members of his party as serving the interests of the West, including the U.S., Britain, France, and Germany.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2012 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
