Last month, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland would not recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel. Now she is refusing to respond to questions about Turkey’s attempts to block Israel’s participation in the NATO Summit to be held in Chicago next month.
Via CNSNews:
Taking advantage of NATO’s decision-making-by-consensus, Turkey is working to block Israeli participation in alliance events, and on Monday, the State Department’s spokeswoman declined to say whether the U.S. would like Israel to take part in next month’s key NATO summit in Chicago.
Instead, Victoria Nuland for several minutes fended off questions on the matter, saying decisions have yet to be made on which of NATO’s partner countries would be invited to Chicago.
Enhancing partnerships with countries outside NATO is one of the summit’s three declared themes.
Fielding questions on Turkey’s stance, Nuland said planning for Chicago was still underway and she had nothing to announce regarding partnership arrangements.
“We haven’t made any announcements about who among NATO’s 25-30 partners around the world we expect to invite to Chicago,” she said. “So I’m not going to comment on individual partners and whether they’re coming to Chicago.”