US-Turkey ties more important

TURKEY: US ties with Turkey are “more important than ever” despite differences over Iran, President Barack Obama said, also urging Ankara to repair ties with Israel, in an interview published Sunday.

“Our shared interests, our shared values... undergird our relationship even when we disagree,” Obama said in written response to questions by Turkey’s mass-selling Hurriyet newspaper.

“Given the increasingly complex challenges the world faces, I believe that US-Turkish cooperation is more important now than ever,” he said.

In June, Turkey irked the United States as it voted against fresh sanctions slapped on Iran by the UN Security Council, insisting that a nuclear fuel swap deal it hammered out with Tehran, together with Brazil, should be given a chance. Its “no” vote came atop a severe crisis with one-time ally Israel after nine Turks were killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound activist ship. Obama told Hurriyet he remained “committed to a diplomatic resolution” of tensions over Iran, but stressed the Islamic Republic had failed to convince the international community that its nuclear programme was solely for peaceful purposes.

Ankara, Monday, AFP