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ANKARA: Turkish Overseas Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has introduced that he’ll go to the US this month, as Ankara begins the brand new yr with a diplomatic push in Washington.
He’ll arrive on Jan. 17 and, amongst different engagements, meet US Secretary of State Antony Blinken the next day. He may also journey to Houston to open Turkiye’s new consulate there.
It will likely be the primary official go to to the US by a senior member of the Turkish authorities since President Joe Biden took workplace two years in the past.
The US Treasury Division, in the meantime, stated it was taking joint motion with Turkiye towards a community it stated performed a key function in cash administration, switch and distribution for Daesh working in Iraq and Syria.
The Turkish Overseas Affairs Ministry stated on Twitter the belongings of seven people or authorized individuals concerned in financing for the group have been frozen.
The US Treasury Division stated 4 people and two entities in Turkiye have been designated underneath US sanctions.
Cavusoglu’s diplomatic discussions with American officers in the course of the journey are probably embrace a number of thorny points affecting relations between the 2 international locations, together with his nation’s ongoing rapprochement with the Assad regime in Syria and the saga over Turkiye’s try to buy 40 F-16 fighter jets, which has been rumbling on since October 2021.
Wealthy Outzen, a senior fellow on the Atlantic Council, stated that cooperation on Ukraine and Libya, in addition to methods to scale back tensions in Syria and the Mediterranean, may even be on the agenda in the course of the ministerial-level conferences.
“The Balkans might be additionally lined as Ankara is kind of involved in regards to the latest spike in tensions between Serbia and Kosovo,” he advised Arab Information.
“It will likely be very attention-grabbing to see if Cavusoglu has conferences past the State Division whereas in DC, as an illustration with members of Congress, that may point out additional effort on the F16 deal,” Outzen added.
Turkiye’s efforts to beat congressional hurdles which have been blocking its buy of the fighter jets and equipment-upgrade kits for its current planes are anticipated to be a part of the discussions, amid an ongoing objection to the deal by Robert Menendez, a Democratic senator and chair of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee. Arms gross sales to overseas international locations are topic to congressional approval.
In a message posted on Twitter final month, Menendez wrote: “I’ll say it once more. I cannot approve F-16s for Turkiye till Erdogan halts his abuses throughout the area,” hinting at ongoing tensions between Turkiye and Greece over airspace and the militarization of islands within the Aegean, and Turkish objections to the US partnership with Syrian Kurds.
In 2019, Turkiye was faraway from a consortium shaped to provide next-generation F-35 fighter jets. In December the next yr, Congress restricted army gross sales to Turkiye underneath the Countering America’s Adversaries By Sanctions Act, in response to Ankara’s buy of Russian S-400 missile techniques. About $1.4 billion Turkiye had paid to amass F-35s has not been reimbursed.
Cavusoglu, who met Syrian opposition teams in Ankara on Tuesday, stated that the US opposes latest Turkish reconciliation efforts with the Syrian regime. He urged each Washington and Moscow to fulfill their commitments to battle terrorism in Syria, in a veiled reference to the US alliance with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. Turkiye considers the YPG to be the Syrian department of the Kurdistan Employees’ Get together, or PKK, and has outlawed it.
Final week, the US state-owned Voice of America radio community’s Turkish service quoted a spokesperson from the US State Division as saying that the US doesn’t help international locations “upgrading their relations to rehabilitate the brutal dictator” Bashar Assad, the Syrian president.
Regardless of Washington’s opposition to any strikes to legitimize the Assad regime, which might give additional diplomatic leverage to regime ally Russia, a gathering between the Syrian and Turkish overseas ministers is anticipated within the second half of January to debate a doable assembly between the presidents of each international locations for the primary time because the Syrian struggle started in 2011.
On Thursday, Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated Turkish, Russian and Syrian leaders would meet after the overseas ministers’ assembly to debate peace efforts in Syria.
From a US perspective, Russia would possibly interact in Turkiye-Syria talks by approving a Turkish army offensive towards the YPG in return for additional talks with Syrian regime, which might distract Syrian Kurds from their battle towards Daesh.
Specialists don’t anticipate any main breakthroughs in US-Turkiye relations in the course of the assembly between Cavusoglu and Blinken, in mild of the upcoming Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections in June.
“It might be an enormous shock,” Outzen stated. “Washington appears content material to forestall crises within the run-up to Turkish elections this yr and it doesn’t need both a breakdown or a breakthrough to turn into a storyline in Turkiye’s home political contest.”
There’ll subsequently be a gap for progress within the months after the election, whichever aspect wins, he added.
“However the issues are fairly rooted, so progress could be achieved (throughout Cavusoglu’s go to) — however I don’t count on an enormous breakthrough,” Outzen stated.
Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, director of German Marshall Fund of the US’s Ankara workplace, agreed with that evaluation.
“I believe we must always not count on main breakthroughs in US-Turkiye relations from this go to,” he advised Arab Information.
“Presidential and parliamentary elections might be held in Turkiye in just a few months and the Biden administration is paying additional consideration to keep away from being portrayed as taking sides within the Turkish political course of.”
Unluhisarcikli stated that on points that aren’t thought-about significantly essential or pressing, Washington might be pleased to kick the can down the highway till after the Turkish election.
“I believe Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership and Turkiye’s request to purchase new F-16 planes, in addition to modernization kits for its current F-16 fleet, can be the focal factors of the Blinken-Cavusoglu assembly as they’re each essential points and the latter can be pressing,” he added.
Although Washington refuses to hyperlink the 2 points, Unluhisarcikli stated, they’re virtually linked as a result of a optimistic growth in a single would offer a lift to the opposite.
Cavusoglu and Blinken lately spoke by phone and the latter expressed his concern over the state of affairs in Syria, based on the US Division of State.
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