Sun 01 March 2020:
U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday he was in talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over supplying Turkey with Patriot missiles.
“We are discussing this issue with President Erdoğan,” Trump said when asked to comment Turkey’s request for the air defense missiles.
Turkey has requested the Patriots amid heightened military tension in northwestern Syria’s Idlib.
Erdoğan also discussed the latest developments in Idlib on Saturday with French President Emmanuel Macron.
Erdoğan told Macron that Turkey was expecting a clear and tangible action from NATO regarding Idlib.
Attacks from the forces of the Bashar Assad regime have killed 55 Turkish soldiers this month in Idlib. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has threatened to push back Assad forces if they do not pull back to pre-determined lines.
Regime airstrikes targeting Turkish troops heightened tensions between pro-opposition Turkey, Assad and its ally Russia.
The latest crisis stems from a Russian-backed Assad regime military campaign to retake Idlib province, which is the last opposition-held stronghold in Syria. The offensive, which began Dec. 1, has triggered the largest single wave of displacement in Syria’s nine-year war, sending nearly 950,000 people fleeing to areas near the Turkish border for safety.
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