Turkish president lauds US strike in central Syria

Turkish President Rajab Tayyib Erdoghan has praised the incumbent US administration for the US missile attack against a military airfield in Syria’s central province of Homs, stating that President Donald Trump has shown a “more determined” approach than his predecessor Barack Obama.

“It was late coming but something that we welcomed," Erdoghan said at the Atlantic Council Energy Summit in Istanbul on Friday.

On April 7, the Pentagon said 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles had been fired from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea at Shayrat airfield in Homs.

US officials claimed that a suspected chemical incident in the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province on April 4, which reportedly killed over 80 people, had been launched from the military site. Syria has vehemently dismissed the allegations of being behind the attack.

Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported that at least nine people had been killed in the early morning US strike on the Syrian airfield.

Erdoghan further voiced confidence that he and Trump can open a “new page” in Ankara-Washington relations, when they meet in mid-May.

“I believe that we will open a new page with Mr. Trump in Turkey-US relations,” he said.

The Turkish president also stated that he expected a turnaround from the US administration on the use of Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces in a planned US-led offensive to retake Daesh’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqah.

“We can never accept cooperation with a terror organization that is aiming at the lives of our people on the pretext of fighting against Daesh,” Erdoghan said.

He added that the “concrete support” that the United States offers to the YPG is “harming the spirit of alliance and partnership.”

SS