WASHINGTON/ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has postponed a White House meeting with President Joe Biden, a source familiar with the situation and a Turkish official said on Friday of a visit that had been tentatively planned for May 9.
A White House spokesperson, while not confirming the May 9 date, said: “We look forward to hosting President Erdogan at the White House at a mutually convenient time, but we have not been able to align our schedules and do not have any visit to announce at this time.”
A new date will soon be set due to a change in Erdogan’s schedule, the Turkish official said, requesting anonymity. The source familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear what prompted the postponement.
The White House never formally announced the visit but a US official told Reuters in late March that following Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s visit to Washington, the White House offered and Ankara had accepted May 9 for a meeting between Biden and Erdogan.
That would have been the first bilateral visit to Washington since 2019 when Erdogan met with then President Donald Trump, a Republican. He and Biden have met a few times at international summits and spoken by phone since the Democratic US president took office in January 2021.
Ties between the US and Turkiye have been long strained by differences on a range of issues. While they have thawed since Ankara ratified Sweden’s NATO membership bid earlier this year, tensions persist over Syria and Russia and the war in Gaza.
Erdogan visited neighboring Iraq this week. Last weekend, he met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, the first meeting between Erdogan and a Hamas delegation headed by Haniyeh since Israel began its military offensive in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack.
Turkiye’s Erdogan postpones tentative White House visit, sources say
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Turkiye’s Erdogan postpones tentative White House visit, sources say
- A new date will soon be set due to a change in Erdogan’s schedule, the Turkish official said
- The source familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was unclear what prompted the postponement
US announces ‘large-scale’ strikes against Daesh in Syria
WASHINGTON: US and allied forces carried out “large-scale” strikes against the Daesh group in Syria on Saturday in response to an attack last month that left three Americans dead, the US military said.
“The strikes today targeted Daesh throughout Syria” and were part of Operation Hawkeye Strike, which was launched “in direct response to the deadly Daesh attack on US and Syrian forces in Palmyra, Syria” on December 13, US Central Command said in a statement on X.
CENTCOM said the operation was ordered by President Donald Trump following the ambush and is aimed at “root(ing) out Islamic terrorism against our warfighters, prevent(ing) future attacks, and protect(ing) American and partner forces in the region.”
The statement continued: “If you harm our warfighters, we will find you and kill you anywhere in the world, no matter how hard you try to evade justice,” adding that US and coalition forces remain “resolute in pursuing terrorists who seek to harm the United States.”
* With AFP
