Turkey could block Denmarks prime minister from becoming the next Nato chief given concerns over his past stance on Turkey and a row over Danish caricature of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), a Turkish official said on Sunday.
Current secretary general Dutchman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer steps down on July 31. His successor is expected to be named at an April 3-4 Nato summit. Nato diplomats and a US source said on Saturday Washington had told Nato allies it would back Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the next secretary general but getting Turkey to agree would be key.
A Turkish official said the Turkish position could be set in coming days, but Rasmussen was "tainted" in Turkeys eyes. "It may come to the veto," he told Reuters. "We will have to see." Nato leadership positions are filled by consensus among the 26-nation military pact.
The official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, said Turkey was riled that Demark allowed a pro-Kurdish militant television station to broadcast from Denmark, and by comments by Rasmussen in 2003 saying that Turkey would never be a full EU member. "Thirdly, the way that Denmark handled the cartoon crisis didnt go down well at all in Turkey," he said.
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