Monday, August 16, 2010

US threat on Turkey arms sales

Barack Obama, the US president, has warned the Turkish prime minister that Ankara's position on Israel and Iran could lessen its chances of obtaining US weapons, according to a news report.

The Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants to buy American drone aircraft to attack separatist Kurdish rebels after the US military withdraws from Iraq at the end of 2011, Britain's Financial Timesnewspaper reportedon Monday.

The rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party(PKK), has bases in the mountains in the north of Iraq, near the Turkish border.

"The president has said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill [Congress]," a senior administration official was quoted as saying in the daily paper.

Loss of confidence

These questions centred on "whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally," the official said.

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