Azernews.Az

ANKARA – A NATO's early-warning radar system to be deployed in the Turkish territory is not directed against any country, Turkish Foreign Ministry's official Selcuk Unal was quoted as saying by the Milliyet newspaper.

"The radar deployment is aimed at improving level of the NATO missile defense. This is not directed against any country," he said.

Unal said Turkey made this statement in response to the Iranian side’s reaction towards the radar placement in Turkey.

An early warning radar about the threat of missile attack will be placed in the Diyarbakir city of Turkey under a European missile defense system (MDS), Zaman newspaper reported.

The radar will be deployed on the Pirinclik military base near the Diyarbakir city, which was used by the United States until October 1998.

An early warning radar about the threat of missile attack will be placed in Turkey as part of the MDS created by the U.S. and NATO, Unal told journalists on last Friday.

He said the decision to deploy the MDS in Turkey was taken at a NATO summit in Lisbon in 2010, and Turkey initially supported the work connected with the implementation of this initiative.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that Tehran expressed its concern to Ankara over the decision to deploy the radar, and stressed that Israel and other foreign forces in the region will gain significantly from such a move.