ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the US of mistreating a strategic ally, in a blistering speech which appeared to rule out swift resolution to a dispute between two NATO allies jointly fighting Daesh.
Hours after Ankara announced officials would meet soon to settle differences, Erdogan accused the US consulate in Istanbul of hiding an individual with links to a network he blames for last year’s failed coup.
He also condemned US support for Kurdish fighters in Syria and separate US court cases against a senior Turkish banker and the president’s own security guards, mocking what he said was Washington’s claim to be “the capital of democracy.”
Turkey’s relations with the US and many Western countries have been strained since last year’s failed military coup against Erdogan, in which more than 240 people were killed.
Turkey felt many allies were slow to condemn the coup attempt and failed to appreciate the danger it faced. Western countries have grown alarmed at the scale of Turkey’s post-coup crackdown, with 50,000 people detained and 150,000 suspended from work.
Ties with the US hit a low when Turkey detained a locally employed worker at the US consulate in Istanbul last week.
The US says it is still seeking an explanation for the arrest — the second detention of a consulate worker this year. It suspended most visa services in Turkey, saying it needed to review Turkey’s commitment to the security of its mission and staff. Turkey reciprocated within hours.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday and expressed his “profound concern,” the US State Department said.
Erdogan has blamed outgoing US ambassador John Bass, saying he was putting at risk a decades-old alliance.
“Let me be very clear, the person who caused this is the ambassador here. It is unacceptable for the United States to sacrifice a strategic partner to an ambassador who doesn’t know his place,” Erdogan told provincial governors meeting in Ankara.
Turkish grievances
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Turkish and US officials would meet to work on resolving the crisis and described talks between their foreign ministers as constructive.
But Erdogan aired a list of grievances, accusing Washington of sheltering suspected members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), and supporters of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen he blames for last year’s coup attempt. Gulen denies involvement.
“On the one hand you say you are the capital of democracy, but you hide PKK and FETO members,” Erdogan said, using the label his government has given to Gulen’s network.
He said Washington was defending a “FETO-linked person hiding in your consulate,” and said a Christian pastor arrested in western Turkey last year was also “clearly linked” to Gulen.
Ambassador Bass said this week no one was hiding in the US consulate, and that he had seen nothing of merit in the charges against the pastor, Andrew Brunson.
Erdogan said US authorities had wrongly arrested the former head of Turkey’s majority state-owned Halkbank, and were trying to use a detained Turkish gold trader “as an informant.” Both men were arrested on charges of sanctions violations.
Referring to a US grand jury indictment of 15 Turkish security officials who clashed with protesters during his visit to Washington in May, Erdogan said most of them had never set foot on US soil.
“You issue arrest warrants for 13 of my security staff who have never seen the United States,” he said.
“If the ambassador in Ankara is leading the grand United States, then shame on you,” Erdogan said.
“Someone should have said: ‘You cannot treat your strategic partner this way, you can’t behave like this’.”
Close collaboration
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis earlier said US and Turkish military forces continued to work well together amid the diplomatic row.
“We maintain a very close collaboration, very close communication, the military-to-military interaction and integration has not been affected by this,” Mattis told reporters as he traveled to a military headquarters in Florida.
“We are doing good work with them, military to military,” he stressed.
Erdogan says US sacrificing strategic ally Turkey
Erdogan says US sacrificing strategic ally Turkey
Biden spoke with Netanyahu, source says; Sullivan says hostage deal very close
Biden and Netanyahu discussed efforts under way to reach a deal to halt the fighting in the Palestinian enclave and free the remaining 98 hostages held there, the source said.
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s “State of the Union” program earlier on Sunday that the parties were “very, very close” to reaching a deal, but still had to get it across the finish line.
He said Biden was getting daily updates on the talks in Doha, where Israeli and Palestinian officials have said since Thursday that some progress has been made in the indirect talks between Israel and militant group Hamas.
“We are still determined to use every day we have in office to get this done,” Sullivan said, “and we are not, by any stretch of imagination, setting this aside.”
He said there was still a chance to reach an agreement before Biden leaves office, but that it was also possible “Hamas, in particular, remains intransigent.”
Israel launched its assault in Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed across its borders in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 46,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, with much of the enclave laid to waste and gripped by a humanitarian crisis, and most of its population displaced.
Vice President-elect JD Vance told the “Fox News Sunday” program in an interview taped on Saturday that he expects a deal for the release of US hostages in the Middle East to be announced in the final days of the Biden administration, maybe in the last day or two.
President-elect Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israel, has strongly backed Netanyahu’s goal of destroying Hamas. He has promised to bring peace to the Middle East, but has not said how he would accomplish that.
Israel to use withheld Palestinian tax income to pay debt to state-run electric company
- Israel withheld Palestinian Authority's sums earmarked for administration expenses in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023
JERUSALEM: Israel plans to use tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority to pay the PA’s nearly 2 billion shekel ($544 million) debt to state-run Israel Electric Co. (IEC), the far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.
Israel collects tax on goods that pass through Israel into the occupied West Bank on behalf of the PA and transfers the revenue to Ramallah under a longstanding arrangement between the two sides.
Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Smotrich has withheld sums earmarked for administration expenses in the Gaza Strip.
Those frozen funds are held in Norway and, he said at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, would instead be used to pay debt owed to the IEC of 1.9 billion shekels.
“The procedure was implemented after several anti-Israeli actions and included Norway’s unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state,” Smotrich told cabinet ministers.
“The PA’s debt to IEC resulted in high loans and interest rates, as well as damage to IEC’s credit, which were ultimately rolled over to the citizens of Israel.”
The ultranationalist Smotrich has been opposed to sending funds to the PA, which uses the money to pay public sector wages.
Israel also deducts funds equal to the total amount of so-called martyr payments, which the PA pays to families of militants and civilians killed or imprisoned by Israeli authorities.
UAE ship delivers 3,000 tonnes of relief supplies to Lebanon
- Items include food, essentials for women and children, winter necessities
LONDON: The second aid ship from the UAE arrived at Beirut port on Sunday, carrying 3,000 tonnes of relief supplies as part of the UAE Stands with Lebanon campaign.
The UAE launched its campaign to support Lebanon last October as Israel’s war with the Iran-backed Hezbollah escalated in the south of the country.
Nasser Yassin, Lebanon’s environment minister and head of the government’s emergency committee, and Brig. Gen. Bassem Nabulsi, the chairman of the Supreme Relief Authority, received the ship at Beirut port.
Supplies included food, essentials for women and children, winter necessities, and shelter equipment, the Emirates News Agency reported.
Sultan Mohammed Al-Shamsi, the vice chairman of the UAE Aid Agency, said that the UAE’s moral obligation to support the Lebanese people “stems from the humanitarian legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, who dedicated himself to helping nations in need.”
The UAE announced its plan to reopen the embassy in Beirut following a phone call between the newly elected Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, on Saturday.
The leadership in Saudi Arabia welcomed the election of Aoun after a two-year political void in Lebanon. Riyadh has dedicated efforts to help the Lebanese people cope with the devastation caused by the Israeli war and has dispatched several aid planes since 2024.
King of Jordan meets Vatican secretary of state in Amman
- Cardinal Pietro Parolin was in Jordan for the inauguration of the Church of John the Baptist
- King Abdullah praises Pope Francis’s support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip
LONDON: King Abdullah of Jordan welcomed Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, at Al-Husseiniya Palace in Amman on Sunday.
King Abdullah sent his greetings to Pope Francis during a meeting attended by several senior royal advisers and aides. Cardinal Parolin thanked King Abdullah for his support and patronage of the Christian communities in Jordan.
The Jordanian king praised the pope’s support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, who since late 2023 have suffered the effects of an Israeli military campaign.
They agreed on the need to stop Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, and increase the flow of humanitarian aid. They also warned of aggressive Israeli policies in occupied East Jerusalem and its effect on the Islamic and Christian holy sites, the Petra news agency reported.
Parolin on Friday attended the inauguration of the Church of John the Baptist on the east bank of the Jordan River.
15 killed in an explosion and fire at a gas station in central Yemen
- At least 67 others were injured, including 40 in critical condition
- Footage circulated online showing a massive fire that sent columns of smoke into the sky and left vehicles charred and burning
CAIRO: An explosion at a gas station triggered a massive fire in central Yemen, killing at least 15 people, health officials said Sunday.
The explosion occurred Saturday at the Zaher district in the province of Bayda, the Houthi-run Health Ministry said in a statement. At least 67 others were injured, including 40 in critical condition.
The ministry said rescue teams were searching for those reported missing. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the explosion.
Footage circulated online showing a massive fire that sent columns of smoke into the sky and left vehicles charred and burning.
Bayda is controlled by the Houthis, who have been at war with Yemen’s internationally recognized government for more than a decade.
Elsewhere in Bayda, the Houthis attacked and looted Hanaka Al-Masoud village in the Al-Qurayshiya district last week, according to the internationally recognized government. It said there were fatalities but gave no figures.
Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani said the attack came after a weeklong siege of the village.
“This horrific attack targeted citizens’ homes and mosques, and resulted in many casualties, including women and children, and the destruction of property,” he said.
Rights activist Riyadh Al-Dubai said the Houthis detained dozens of men and looted homes, seizing valuables such as gold, money, daggers and other possessions. He said shelling by the Houthis had continued relentlessly day and night for more than five days.
The US Embassy in Yemen condemned the attack, saying in a statement that the “deaths, injuries, and wrongful detentions of innocent Yemenis perpetrated by Houthi terrorists are depriving the Yemeni people of peace and a brighter future.”
Yemen’s civil war began in 2014, when the Houthis took control of the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia.
The war has killed more than 150,000 people including civilians and combatants, and in recent years deteriorated largely into a stalemate and caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
