Europe

Home page

Europe

Turkey, US mull move on ISIL stronghold Raqqa

07 September 2016 08:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. Ankara and Washington are discussing military action on Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Turkish President Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan has told a group of journalists on his way back to Turkey from the G-20 summit in China, where he had a tête-à-tête meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“Raqqa is an important center for Daesh,” ErdoÄŸan said, using an Arabic acronym for the jihadist group. “Obama particularly wants to do something together with us about Raqqa. We have told him that this is not a problem for us.”

Turkey has suggested the high-ranking soldiers of both parties could come together and discuss the issue, and “then what is necessary will be done,” he said.

“This is an issue that we have been discussing with the United States,” he said while responding to a question on whether Turkey would play a role in reclaiming Raqqa.

Turkey does not have the option of taking a step back on Syria or else terror groups will fill in the gap, ErdoÄŸan added.

“From now on, we have to show that we exist in the region. We do not have an option to step back at this point,” the president said.

Responding to a question as to whether the U.S. has changed its stance on the PYD, ErdoÄŸan said Turkey had not experienced any difficulty in cooperating with its partner during the Euphrates Shield operation.

“We worked very comfortably in al-Rai. We did son in Jarablus, and are still doing so,” he said, adding that during a meeting by the two leaders on the sidelines of last year’s G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey and the U.S. initially jointly developed a plan to remove ISIL from an area of 95 by 40 kilometers inside Syria, only for the plan to be delayed.