Turkey has no info over missile radar in Qatar

ISTANBUL / WASHINGTON

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen addresses a news conference at Pristina Airport July 11, 2012. REUTERS/Hazir Reka

Turkey has no information regarding the planned missile-defense radar station at a secret site in Qatar, which a report in a U.S. daily said is slated to house an AN/TPY-2 radar system, also known as X-Band radar.

Quoting U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal said the radar will supplement two similar arrays already in place in Malatya province and Israel’s Negev Desert.

Turkey had denied previously that data from the arrays would be shared with third parties.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen also ruled out the prospect of sharing intelligence from the alliance’s nascent missile defense system with Israel, saying non-NATO countries do not have access to data collected by the system.

The report quoted officials as saying the U.S. military’s Central Command, which is overseeing the buildup to counter Iran, also wants to deploy the army’s first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile-interceptor system, known as a THAAD, in the region in the coming months, possibly in the United Arab Emirates.

The THAAD has its own radar, so deploying it separately from the X-Bands provides even more coverage and increases the system’s accuracy, officials said.