Biden, Erdogan discuss Syrian regime transition
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed a Syrian transition of power away from the Bashar al-Assad regime during a four-hour meeting in Istanbul on Saturday.
“On Syria, we discussed … not only to deny ISIL a safe haven and roll back and defeat them, but also strengthen the Syrian opposition and ensure a transition away from the Assad regime,” Biden told a joint news conference with Erdogan.
Biden said they also spoke about their nations’ efforts to train and equip moderate Syrian opposition forces protecting their communities.
However, the two leaders did not mentioned Erdogan’s demands to create no-fly zones in Syria while Turkey has been pushing for a more comprehensive strategy in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria and Iraq that includes Assad’s removal from power.
Biden said the U.S. needs Turkey in its fight against ISIL, adding “We are attempting to both stem the flow of foreign fighters to battlefields in Iraqi and Syria and dry their funding. We thank Turkey for their leadership in that regard.”
“The depth and resolve of that partnership is strong as ties have ever been, in spite of the fact that the world and that we are collectively facing some difficult problems right now,” Biden added.
Erdogan previously has insisted that if the United States wants Turkish help, it must focus less on fighting IS extremists and more on toppling the Assad regime. On Saturday, he said Turkey will continue working closely with the United States, and he called Biden’s visit “very meaningful.”
Erdogan said that Turkey is determined to strengthen its cooperation with the U.S. against ISIL to maintain regional peace and security while stressing the importance of strategic cooperation between the two countries.
Biden arrived in Istanbul on Friday and he was scheduled to meet with Bartholomew, the Eastern Orthodox Church’s Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on Sunday before returning to Washington. /End/