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Iran-Turkey Rivalry Worsens Over Patriot Deployment

Kadri Gursel writes that Iran's fury at NATO's deployment of Patriot missiles to Turkey is also related to Anakara and Tehran's competing interests in Syria.
Soldiers of the German armed forces Bundeswehr stand next to a radar-unit (L) and a PAC-2 launcher of a "Patriot" missile battery during a press rehearsal in the north German village of Warbelow December 18, 2012. Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, last week approved the sending of two Patriot batteries and 400 soldiers to Turkey as part of a NATO plan to protect the country from any spread of the Syrian conflict. REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz (GERMANY - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CONFLICT)
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Iran was outraged by NATO’s decision to deploy six Patriot batteries at Turkey’s request — two each from the US, Germany and the Netherlands — in Turkey.

On Dec. 15, Iranian Chief of Staff General Hassan Firouzabadi said, “Each one of these Patriots is a black mark on the world map, and is meant to cause a world war. They are making plans for a world war and this is very dangerous for the future of humanity and for the future of Europe itself.”

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