NATO strongly condemns Syria's downing of Turkish jet

NATO strongly condemned Syria’s downing of a Turkish jet and defined it as “unacceptable” and expressed “solidarity” with Turkey yesterday, but stopped short of raising the possibility of military intervention. At an emergency meeting in Brussels of ambassadors from NATO’s 28 member states, Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that Turkey had the support of all its partners. “The security of the alliance is indivisible, we stand together with Turkey in the spirit of strong solidarity,” Rasmussen said. “We consider this act to be unacceptable and condemn it in the strongest terms.” The talks, gathering ambassadors of the 28-nation Atlantic alliance, were requested by Turkey under Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty. The article enables any member to call for consultations should their territorial integrity, political independence or security be considered under threat. During the talks, which lasted about 90 minutes, “allies expressed their strong support and solidarity with Turkey … The security of the alliance is indivisible,” Rasmussen said. At the meeting, Turkey’s ambassador to NATO outlined the circumstances of the shooting down of a Phantom 4 jet on June 22 while it was on a training mission over international waters.