White House: "No ultimatum to Erdogan"

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

... Politico:

".... Obama “emphatically denied” a Financial Times story saying the president had told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan future arms sales would be contingent on softening his anti-Israel talk, White House pool reporter Jonathan Weisman of the Wall Street Journal writes.

.....“The President and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago and they talked about Iran and the flotilla and other issues related to that,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told the press aboard Air Force One Monday. “We obviously have an ongoing dialogue with them. But no such [arms] ultimatum was issued.”

“There’s no ultimatum,” Burton added.

By many accounts, Obama did take a tough tone with Erdogan at a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 in Canada last month. .... Turkish-Israeli diplomatic tensions in the wake of the Gaza flotilla episode in May have cost Turkey support on the Hill,....

U.S. diplomatic sources say Turkey has also played a far more constructive role in recent weeks regarding the possible Iran fuel swap, consulting the U.S. frequently on developments in negotiations. Of note is the key role Turkey played at a July 25th meeting in Turkey of the Turkish, Iranian and Brazilian foreign ministers at which Iran was persuaded to formally respond to the International Atomic Energy Agency about a possible fuel swap deal, and to agree to meet with the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton after Ramadan. The U.S. was extremely satisfied with Turkey’s role in the July negotiations, diplomatic sources say."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 12:42 PM

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