MACRON ACCUSES TURKEY OF SUPPORTING ISIS PROXIES
▶ Ankara undermines coalition with its ‘different definition of terrorism,’ French president says
Emmanuel Macron launched a blistering attack on Turkey’s undermining of the global coalition against ISIS yesterday, accusing the Nato country of working with factions to promote its own interests in Syria.
The French president was meeting US President Donald Trump in London at a Nato leaders meeting, where the two sparred over the future of the alliance and Turkey’s recent incursion into north-east Syria.
“When I look at Turkey, they now are fighting against those who fought with us, shoulder-to-shoulder against ISIS, and sometimes they work with ISIS proxies,” the French president said as he warned Turkey faced choices about its place in the alliance.
“This is an issue, and this is a strategic issue. If we just have discussion about what we pay and we don’t have clearly discussions about such a situation, we are not serious,” he said referring to rows over how much Nato members should commit to defence spending.
“The common enemy today is the terrorist groups. I’m sorry to say, we don’t have the same definition of terrorism around the table,” he said.
Mr Trump had set the tone for a fractious gathering at a meeting with Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The US president took the opportunity to seize the agenda at the start of the two-day summit and hit out at Mr Macron.
Mr Trump said the French leader’s comments had been insulting and nasty. In the runup to the summit, Mr Macron has said Nato has become strategically “brain-dead”, particularly over the US withdrawal from northern Syria.
The US president went as far as saying he could see France moving away from Nato.
“I do see France breaking off,” Mr Trump said. “I’m looking at [Mr Macron] and I’m saying that he needs protection more than anybody, and I see him breaking off. So I’m a little surprised at that.”
For the third summit in a row, Mr Trump is expected to renew demands that European allies and Canada step up defence spending.
He has also shown that he will not be looking to mollify
Mr Macron, who insists that strategic questions must be addressed, such as improving ties with Russia and deciding how to handle Turkey.
The French president said dialogue with Russia was needed.
Speaking at the meeting in London, Mr Trump also accused Iran of killing thousands of protesters.
At a joint press conference with Mr Stoltenberg, he spoke about the widespread popular protests in Iran that have been met by a brutal government crackdown.
US President Donald Trump showed that he will not be looking to mollify Mr Macron
“Iran is killing thousands of people in Iran right now,” Mr Trump said.
He said that civilians had been attacked “for the mere fact they are protesting”.
Iran has been shaken in recent weeks by the largest protests against the government in the 40-year history of the regime.
Human rights groups have said more than 450 protesters were killed during the initial four days of violence.
The protests started after a sudden increase in domestic petrol prices.