ANKARA: A delegation of Turkish officials will head to Washington in two days to discuss an ongoing row between the two NATO allies, broadcaster CNN Turk reported on Tuesday, citing diplomatic sources.
Relations between the two countries have steadily worsened, strained by differences on Syria policy and over the trial of US pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey. A trade spat between the two sent Turkey’s lira currency to plunge to a record low on Monday.
Over the weekend, the US Trade Representative said it was reviewing Turkey’s duty-free access to the US market, after Ankara imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods in response to American tariffs on steel and aluminum. The move could affect $1.7 billion of Turkish exports.
On Tuesday, CNN Turk cited diplomatic sources saying that Ankara and Washington had reached pre-agreements on certain issues, but it did not elaborate.
The Turkish government was not immediately available for comment, and the US State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
US President Donald Trump’s administration has demanded that Turkey release Brunson, an evangelical pastor who has lived in Turkey for more than two decades and has been charged with supporting a group that Ankara has blamed for an attempted coup in 2016. He has denied the accusations.
Last week, Washington imposed sanctions on President Tayyip Erdogan’s justice minister and interior minister, saying they played leading roles in organizations responsible for Brunson’s arrest.
Erdogan said that Turkey would retaliate by freezing assets of the US interior and justice ministers in Turkey “if they have any.”
The Turkish currency, which has lost 27 percent of its value this year, fell some 5.5 percent to a record low of 5.4250 against the dollar on Monday, its biggest single-day drop in nearly 10 years.
The lira firmed as far as 5.2625 against the dollar after reports of the delegation going to Washington, and traded at 5.2672 at 2238 GMT.
Turkish, US officials to meet in Washington amid dispute
Turkish, US officials to meet in Washington amid dispute
- Turkey would retaliate by freezing assets of the US interior and justice ministers in Turkey “if they have any”
- The Turkish currency, which lost 27% of its value this year, fell 5.5% to a record low of 5.4250 against the dollar
Survival in Gaza ‘on the edge,’ living conditions ‘brutal’ despite easing of hunger, UN officials warn
- ‘The situation remains extremely precarious … Having an entire population living on the brink is just not acceptable,’ says UNICEF deputy executive director
- ‘Hundreds of thousands of people are shivering in fabric tents that don’t keep the heat in or the rain out,’ adds World Food Programme deputy executive director
NEW YORK CITY: Survival in Gaza remains “on the edge” and the conditions there are “extremely brutal,” senior UN officials said on Monday, despite some easing of the situation compared with last year.
They warned that the entire population of the battered enclave is living on the brink, in what they described as an unacceptable situation. Urgent decisions are needed to ensure humanitarian access remains open, and to prevent fragile gains from being reversed they added.
“The situation remains extremely precarious, with survival at the edge,” the deputy executive director of UNICEF, Ted Chaiban, told reporters after returning from a visit to Gaza and the West Bank.
“Having an entire population living on the brink is just not acceptable.”
Carl Skau, the World Food Programme’s deputy executive director, who accompanied Chaiban on the visit, said the living conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced people were “just brutal,” with families sheltering in flimsy tents or heavily damaged buildings in Gaza as winter storms batter the territory.
“Hundreds of thousands of people are shivering in fabric tents that don’t keep the heat in or the rain out,” Skau said.
“I met a woman, who had given birth just 10 days earlier, sitting on a wet mattress in a cold tent on the beach. It was absolutely brutal.”
Both officials said the situation had improved compared with a year ago, when Gaza was on the brink of famine, but stressed that the gains were fragile and could easily be reversed.
“The ceasefire has allowed us to rein in famine,” Skau said. “Most people I spoke to were eating at least once a day. But there is still a very long way to go. The situation is extremely fragile.”
Chaiban said that more aid and commercial goods were entering Gaza and the availability of food had improved, but he warned that the humanitarian crisis remained deadly, for children in particular.
“More than 100 children have been reported killed since the ceasefire,” he said, adding that about 100,000 youngsters are still acutely malnourished and require long-term care.
About 1.3 million people, many of them children, still lack proper shelter, Chaiban added, as families continue to live in flimsy tents or bombed-out buildings, exposed to heavy rain, strong winds and freezing temperatures.
At least 10 children reportedly have died of hypothermia since winter began.
“It really is miserable in those tents,” Chaiban said.
Skau said hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced, unable to return to homes that had been reduced to rubble, and struggling to survive with little protection from the elements.
“I spoke to a woman who had lost her husband, most of her relatives and her home,” he said. “She was left with four children and absolutely nothing.”
Both officials highlighted moments of resilience amid the devastation, including children who had returned to learning and families who were attempting to rebuild fragments of normal life, but said such signs of hope should not obscure the sheer scale of the ongoing suffering.
“The gains we’ve made can easily be reversed,” Skau said. “So much more needs to be done now.”
Both of the officials said further progress would depend on the continuation of the ceasefire agreement and predictable humanitarian access, including the opening and sustained operation of multiple border crossings, and routes into and within Gaza. Aid workers need safe conditions in which to operate at scale, they added.
Shelter remains the most urgent need as winter storms continue; Skau said the immediate priority was to “flood the strip with shelter,” while Chaiban said decisions were urgently needed to ensure access for essential supplies and to restore basic services.
The coming weeks will be critical, Chaiban said, adding: “We have a window to change the trajectory for children in Gaza. We can’t waste it.”
