Turkey may sue Israel over drone delay

Turkey may sue Israel for failing to meet an agreed deadline to supply surveillance drones to Ankara, facing Tel Aviv with a fine of $3-4 million.

"Turkey plans to impose a heavy monetary penalty on Israel for the delay," Turkish daily Today's Zaman quoted a senior official at the Under-secretariat for Defense Industries as saying.

The official threatened Ankara would take the case up with the International Court of Commercial Arbitration if Israel refused to comply with the penalty.

In 2005, Turkey signed a deal with Israel to purchase 10 Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) worth more than $180 million from Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems, Ltd.

Israel was supposed to deliver four Herons in August, followed by another two and then the last four by the end of October.

However, Israel missed the deadline, citing difficulties in the strengthening of Heron engines to enable local Aselsan-made electro-optical payloads (Aselfir300T) to be fitted onto the vehicles, Israeli media reported.

The delay apparently angered officials in Ankara and prompted them to cancel a planned joint military exercise in a show of protest, which further soured Turkish-Israeli ties.

The relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv saw another fall on Wednesday when Israeli Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish envoy over a series of broadcasts on Turkey's public TV showing Israeli soldiers brutally killing Palestinian children.

Turkey, one of the few Middle East states which have maintained diplomatic ties with Israel, remains a voiced critic of Tel Aviv's actions against the Palestinian nation, including the closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque to Palestinians, the siege of Gaza, and the weeks-long offensive in the coastal sliver that left over 1,400 Gazans killed.