Turkey’s Foreign Minister Davutoglu said that Israel  NATO’s partnership had nothing to related with Patriot missiles.

Ankara has dismissed claims that its decision to withdraw veto to Israel’s participation in NATO is linked to the alliance’s decision to deploy Patriot missiles on the Turkish-Syrian border. 

“This is absolutely not related to the Patriots,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on television Friday.

“Those claiming it don’t know how NATO works,” he said. Israeli and Turkish media reported last week, that Israel was given a limited authorization to attend some NATO activities in 2013. Still, Israel will be excluded from NATO’s major military activities, including joint exercises.