US President Donald Trump urged Benjamin Netanyahu to be ‘reasonable’ with Turkey, emphasising his good relations with Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, after the Israeli prime minister said he did not want Syria to be used by Turkey to attack Israel.
‘We don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base to attack Israel,’ Netanyahu said during a press appearance with Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, which was echoed by numerous media outlets. The Israeli prime minister also said he was aware of the good relations between Turkey and the US, which is why he had addressed this issue in previous talks with Trump, and said that the US president could be a good mediator to prevent an escalation of tensions between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
Trump responded to Bibi’s words by reaffirming his good relations with Erdoğan, but when asked if he considered, like Netanyahu, that Turkish influence in Syria was a cause for concern, he disagreed: “(Erdoğan) is a tough guy, and he’s very smart, and he did something that nobody was able to do,” he said, referring to the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in Syria. ‘I said (to Erdoğan), Congratulations, you’ve done what nobody’s been able to do in 2,000 years. You’ve taken over Syria with different names, but same thing. I said, you’ve taken it over. He’s taken it over through surrogates,’ Trump said, referring to the Syrian rebel groups supported by Ankara.
‘Bibi, if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think you’re going to be able to work it out. You know, I have a very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader (Erdoğan), and I think we’ll be able to work it out. So I hope that’s not going to be a problem. I don’t think it will be a problem,’ Trump told Netanyahu. ‘Any problem that you have with Turkey, I think I can solve. I mean, as long as you’re reasonable, you have to be reasonable. We have to be reasonable,’ the US president insisted, addressing the Israeli leader.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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