The US publicly called on Turkey to do more to close its border with Syria, which has been a major conduit for the Isis to bring fighters and arms into the country.
As the US announced it would send more special operations forces into Iraq and Syria to take on Isis, President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he had had “repeated conversations” with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, urging him block off the border to Isis.
The signs of friction between the US and Turkey come as the US-led coalition is trying to launch a military operation to expel Isis from the last 98km strip of the Syria-Turkish border that it still controls.
The US and Turkey have been discussing the operation for months and US-trained forces have begun fighting Isis in part of the area, however the military plans have been partly hampered by continued disagreements between Washington and Ankara.
Speaking at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday, Mr Obama said of the plan to retake the border strip still controlled by Isis: “We have been having our militaries’ work together to determine how a combination of air and Turkish ground forces on the Turkish side of the border can do a much better job of sealing the border than currently is.” He added: “I think President Erdogan recognises that.”
Ashton Carter, US defence secretary, said on Tuesday that “Turkey must do more to control its often porous border”. The US would like Turkey to deploy more troops to its side of the border with Syria. A senior US official said that the discussions with Turkey about the border zone had been a “hard slog”.
The Turks have been pushing for a broader plan that would turn the area into a safe zone for refugees and rebel soldiers once Isis has been expelled. Mr Carter said that the US was against the idea of a safe zone because of the difficulty of retaining control. He added that the Turks “have not offered a force of the size that would do that [secure the zone]”.
