Turkey 'agrees to US air base use'

[webfact]

Turkey 'agrees to US air base use'

(BBC) Turkey has agreed to let the US use its military bases in the campaign against Islamic State militants, US National Security Adviser Susan Rice says.

Ms Rice said the US welcomed the new agreement, which included use of the Incirlik air base in Turkey's south.

The US is leading air strikes against IS, which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria in recent months.

Turkey shares a border with both countries, but has so far ruled out any ground operation of its own.

Speaking to US broadcaster NBC, Ms Rice said Turkey had recently agreed to let the US use Turkish bases and territory "to train moderate Syrian opposition forces" and "engage in activities inside of Iraq and Syria".

"That's the new commitment, and one that we very much welcome," she added.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29591916


-- BBC 2014-10-13

[canopus1969]

About time !

[Costas2008]

Good for them in every aspect.

Here comes billions of dollars aid to Turkey from the USA.

But what are allies for?

[kamahele]

I'd appreciate Turkey more if they used ground troops. It is my opinion that they are letting ISIS slaughter as many Kurds as possible before going in with their ground troops.

[coma]

"to train moderate Syrian opposition forces"

​Train terrorists to fight more terrorists. Throw petrol on the fire. Plant the seeds of the future's enemies. When will this lot learn.

[mjef]

"to train moderate Syrian opposition forces"

​Train terrorists to fight more terrorists. Throw petrol on the fire. Plant the seeds of the future's enemies. When will this lot learn.

Don't worry! They just wanna make sure that history repeats itself! But it's weird how the recurrence cycle is reduced from a few decades to a few years!!! IMHO they made sure there is no long-term memory involved and now they're figuring out how short actually people's short-term memory is!!!

[GertrudeL]

Business is business ^^

[chuckd]

One would have thought, after the Benghazi debacle, the Obama administration would have NOT let Susan Rice anywhere near an open microphone.

Some lessons are learned the hard way. Some lessons are never learned.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The Obama Administration Has a Kiss-and-Tell Problem

In its excitement to trumpet the coalition against the Islamic State, the U.S. is outing partners before they're ready to go steady.

BY GOPAL RATNAM , JOHN HUDSON OCTOBER 13, 2014

The Obama administration insists that it has a large and growing coalition of nations arrayed to fight the Islamic State. If a new diplomatic blowup with Turkey is any example, though, the alliance may be far less robust than Washington says.

The latest row concerns the key question of whether Turkey, which hosts a sprawling American air base, will let U.S. warcraft fly from it into Iraq and Syria to batter the militant group. U.S. officials said Sunday that Ankara had given the green light. Less than a day later, Turkish officials categorically denied that they'd agreed to allow their bases to be used against the terror group.

Entire article here: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/10/13/the_obama_administration_has_a_kiss_and_tell_problem_terrorism_Turkey_ISIS_Kurdish_Slovenia_Coalition

Additional source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/world/europe/not-so-fast-turkey-says-on-us-use-of-air-bases.html?_r=0

[Credo]

The usual nonsensical political rhetoric. Turkey is very similar to another country we know well. Nobody knows for sure exactly who is control. It might be the military or it might be the elected gov't.

It is not the first time, and it won't be the last, that one power player has said yes and the other power player has said no. It has little to do with Susan Rice or the US. It is internal to Turkey.