国际英语新闻:Turkey denies report of defense cooperation against Iran

ANKARA, May 5(Xinhua) -- Turkey's Foreign Ministry has dismissed a report from British Sunday Times that Turkey was trying to make an anti-Iran defense cooperation agreement with Israel and three Arab states.

"These are manipulative reports which have nothing to do with the reality," Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Gumrukcu told reporters on Sunday.

British daily the Sunday Times reported that Israel was preparing a joint effort with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to establish a warning system to defend against Iranian ballistic missiles.

Under the plan, the five countries would build joint command-and- control centers to share data in anti-missile radar defense systems, according to the Sunday Times. It will create a "moderate crescent" in the region as a counterweight to the "fundamentalist crescent" consisting of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Hezbollah, the report said.