Erdogan, Trump agree joint action against Islamic State in Syria: Turkish sources

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters



08 FEB 2017 AT 11:50 ET

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in an overnight phone call on joint action against Islamic State in the Syrian towns of Raqqa and al-Bab, both held by the militants, Turkish presidency sources said on Wednesday.

U.S.-Turkish differences during former President Barack Obama’s administration impeded the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State, and closer coordination could mean faster progress towards freeing swathes of northern Syria from IS.

Erdogan now hopes that relations with Washington, strained by the presence in the United States of a cleric he blames for an attempted military coup last year and by U.S. support for Kurdish militia in Syria, can be reset under Trump.

Turkey has the second largest army in the NATO alliance and is key to any success in rolling back and eventually neutralising IS in Syria and Iraq where IS declared a cross-border caliphate after lightning advances in 2014.

Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/erdogan-trump-agree-joint-action-against-islamic-state-in-syria-turkish-sources/

[HopeAgain]

1. Yeah, and all we have to do...

is let Erdogan and his army kill all the Kurds he wants. This regime is barely a step above Assad.

[nycbos]

3. Great minds think alike we posted about the Kurds exactly at the same time.

[lark]

4. Since he's more or less a dictator, drumpf loves him.

It's democracy that he hates. I doubt he even knows who the Kurds are, so, as usual, he's playing with half a deck and making really bad decisions because he doesn't have the facts and doesn't want to know the facts. He prefers alternative facts!

[nycbos]

2. You mean Erdogan will use this opportunity to attack the Kurds fighting ISIS...

... and Trump will go along with it because he doesn't know the Kurds are one of the most pro-western forces in the middle east. And some of the most effective anti-ISIS fighters.

[lark]

5. Exactly!

Another example of Drumpf making the world entirely more unsafe than it already was. His destruction here is ongoing as well.

[Mr. Sparkle]

6. Donald is very friendly with the right wing despots of the world

[Javaman]

7. Turkey is quickly becoming the 1950's version of Guatemala nt