Rex Tillerson, the U.S. Secretary of State, met Thursday with Turkish leaders in a meeting that lasted more than three and a half hours and conducted out of standard protocol which dictates that the U.S. top diplomat needs to have policy aids and a professional translator with him.
According to CNN, Tillerson met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, with the latter translating, as the three discussed growing tensions between the two NATO allies.
“If the meeting is not conducted in English, it is foolhardy in the extreme not to have at his side a State Department translator, who can ensure that Mr. Tillerson’s points are delivered accurately and with the proper emphasis,” John Kirby who is former Obama administration State Department spokesman said to CNN.
“That Mr. Tillerson eschewed this sort of support in what he knew would be a tense and critical meeting with President Erdogan smacks of either poor staff work or dangerous naïveté on his part,” he added.
However, a State Department official told CNN that Tillerson has “met before with President Erdogan, and he’s okay with the foreign minister doing the translation. They have a good, strong working relationship.”
In recent months, relations between U.S. and Turkey have been under tension over the U.S-backed coalition forces’ support for Syrian Kurdish forces, including the YPG, which Turkey and the international community consider a terrorist organization.
It was announced by Pentagon in November that it was “taking a look” at ending armed support for the YPG under pressure from Turkish diplomats.
“Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions and that the YPG won’t be given arms, and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago,” Cavusoglu said at the time.
“Consistent with our previous policy, President Trump also informed President Erdogan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return,” the White House stated back then.
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