PM Yıldırım meets US Sec. of State Tillerson

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and other officials met U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday, a day after Turkey said it has ended a military operation in northern Syria amid differences with the United States over how to fight the Daesh terrorist group there.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said late Wednesday that Operation Euphrates Shield had ended after its troops and allied opposition forces secured territory along the border between Turkey and Syria.

Turkey has pressed the United States to mount a joint fight to retake Raqqa and wants U.S.-backed PKK's Syrian offshoot People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters to be excluded from the operations.

Tillerson is scheduled to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Thursday.

Other issues likely to come up in the talks are Turkish requests for the extradition of U.S.-based Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) leader Fetullah Gülen, whose group is behind a failed coup attempt last year.

FM Çavuşoğlu said Turkey would also take up the issue of the arrest in New York of a senior executive of Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank. The executive is accused of helping Iran violate U.S. sanctions against the country.

source: Daily sabah

30.03.2017