U.S., Turkey hold talks on cooperation to fight IS

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Sunday 17 May 2015 - 10:57 Makkah mean time-28-7-1436 Ankara (IINA) – The United States and Turkey held in the Turkish capital of Ankara "productive" talks on the cooperation to fight against the Islamic State (IS) militants, Xinhua news agency reported, citing a statement released Saturday by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Gen. John Allen and Deputy Special Presidential Envoy Amb. Brett McGurk had talks with Under Secretary of Turkish Foreign Ministry Feridun Sinirlioglu about cooperation on fighting against IS militants, the embassy said in the statement. They discussed a number of ways in which the U.S. and Turkey can broaden and deepen cooperation on counter-IS efforts, including on countering the flow of foreign fighters, the statement said. General Allen thanked Turkey for "supporting the train and equip effort which will build the capability of the vetted Syrian opposition to defend the Syrian people from attacks by IS; secure territory controlled by the moderate Syrian opposition; protect the U.S., our coalition partners and allies, and the Syrian people from threats posed by terrorists in Syria; and promote the conditions for a negotiated settlement to end the conflict in Syria," the statement added. On February, Ankara and Washington signed an agreement to provide training and equipment for Syrian opposition forces, aiming to train a total of 15,000 Syrian opposition fighters over a three-year period, 5,000 of whom will be trained in Turkey. AB/IINA