Turkey concerned over report that UK spied on Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek

The UK Guardian said that the UK intercepted phone calls and monitored the computers of Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and his delegation during a meeting in London in 2009. Accordingly, some delegates from countries in the G20 used Internet cafes that had been set up by British intelligence agencies to monitor their emails. Expressing its concerns, the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement on Monday demanded that the UK provides an "official and satisfying explanation" regarding the incident. "If there is even the slightest truth to any of these claims contained in this news report, this will evidently constitute a scandal primarily for the country concerned. In an environment where mutual trust, respect and transparency should be essential for international cooperation, such act by an allied country would clearly be deemed unacceptable, should the news report turn out to be true," the statement said.