Davutoglu slams Israeli media reports on Turkey's new security strategy

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday slammed Israeli media reports saying that the new version of Turkey's national security document refers to Israel as a strategic threat, calling them intentionally provocative. Davutoglu, speaking to reporters in Beijing, did not explicitly deny that Israel is called a threat in the National Security Policy Document, which was recently revised to reflect the government's policy of zero problems with its neighbors. Davutoglu said instead that the document is classified and that the media reports on it are unsourced. "I am not commenting on the contents of the document," he said. "But if such stories about classified content fail to quote a source, no one should be misled into trusting in them." He added, "The claims that appeared in the Israeli media are unfounded. They are another example of provocative reporting, which we have been recently witnessing in the Israeli media quite frequently." The Israeli media reported over the weekend that the new security policy document, endorsed by the National Security Council (NSC) last week, refers to Israel as a strategic threat. Reacting to the reports on Sunday, Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov urged Israeli tourists to boycott Turkey. Sources close to the NSC meeting said last week that the document, commonly known as the "Red Book," referred, for the first time, to Israel's actions in the Middle East as a threat to Turkey. In the section on relations with neighbors and external threats, the document reportedly points to instability in the region caused by Israel and the possibility that Israel's actions could lead to a regional arms race.