ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan signalled on Sunday that Ankara may agree to Finland joining NATO ahead of Sweden, amid growing tensions with Stockholm.
“We may deliver Finland a different message (on their NATO application) and Sweden would be shocked when they see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake Sweden did,” Erdogan said in a televised speech aired on Sunday.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and need all member countries’ approval to join. Turkiye and Hungary are yet to ratify the Nordic countries’ membership.
Turkiye says Sweden, in particular, harbors what Ankara says are militants from the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984.
“We gave Sweden a list of 120 persons and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country. If you don’t extradite them, then sorry about that,” Erdogan said, referring to Turkiye’s agreement with Sweden and Finland last June over their NATO application.
Turkiye suspended NATO talks with Sweden and Finland last week after a protest in Stockholm in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Qur’an.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said his country wanted to restore NATO dialogue with Turkiye, but Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday it was meaningless to restart talks.
Cavusoglu also said there was “no offer to evaluate Sweden’s and Finland’s NATO membership separately.”
Turkiye’s Erdogan signals Finland’s NATO bid may be considered over Sweden
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Turkiye’s Erdogan signals Finland’s NATO bid may be considered over Sweden
- Turkiye suspended NATO talks with Sweden and Finland last week after a protest in Stockholm in which a far-right politician burned a copy of the Qur’an
Yemen anti-terror forces display confiscated STC explosives and equipment used
RIYADH: Yemeni anti-terrorism forces, trained and equipped by Saudi Arabia, show confiscated explosives and equipment belonging to the now dissolved UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) in Mukalla.
Earlier today, Salam Al-Khanbashi, the governor of Hadhramaut, suggested the United Arab Emirates played an alarming role in Yemen and the largest of its 21 governorates.
In a televised press conference yesterday, Al-Khanbashi accused the UAE of having exploited the coalition working to restore legitimate government in Yemen “to achieve its own agenda.”
He also claimed that the citizens of Hadhramaut had been killed, terrorised and tortured by armed groups affiliated with STC leader Maj. Gen. Aidarous Al-Zubaidi, who is backed by the UAE and earlier this month was sacked as vice-president of the country’s Presidential Leadership Council (PLC).
