Aboard a US military aircraft: Turkey gave Washington advance warning before launching an operation against US-allied Syrian Kurdish forces, and Ankara has “legitimate” security concerns, Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday.
“Turkey was candid. They warned us before they launched the aircraft they were going to do it in consultation with us, and we are working now on the way ahead through the ministry of foreign affairs,” Mattis told reporters aboard his aircraft at the start of a trip to Asia.
On his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “unilateral actions” by the United States in Iran and Syria have infuriated Turkey.
“Many political scientists are asking why do we care and say that the worst is the best: let the United States prove its inability to find an agreement, (to show) its destructive role in global affairs, let it be in Iran or Syria and where the unilateral actions have already infuriated Turkey,” he said.
