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Turkey Warns US Over Supposed Lack of Support

4 Jan 2017 – The Turkish Defense Minister, Fikri Işık, has implicitly warned that Ankara will block US use of one of the largest military airbases in the world if Washington does not support Turkish-rebel operations within Syria.Işık said, in response to a question on Thursday: “I hope that all coalition forces, especially the US, will provide the air support and other support that Turkey needs in the Euphrates [Shield] operation, and the necessary steps will not be delayed further.”

The Defense Minister then said the lack of US involvement made the Turkish Government “question” the American position at Incirlik. Turkey intervened on August 24 with airstrikes, armored vehicles, and troops alongside a rebel offensive against the Islamic State in northern Syria. After taking much of ISIS’s territory, the offensive has struggled in the past month in its attempt to capture al-Bab, the Islamic State’s main position in Aleppo Province. Last week, both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu denounced the lack of US-led airstrikes in support of the al-Bab ground assault.  www.mesop.de