US Vice President Mike Pence and State Secretary Mike Pompeo arrived in Ankara on Thursday where the two are expected to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later in the day to discuss the situation in northern Syria, the Rudaw English news outlet reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2019) US Vice President Mike Pence and State Secretary Mike Pompeo arrived in Ankara on Thursday where the two are expected to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later in the day to discuss the situation in northern Syria, the Rudaw English news outlet reported.
On Wednesday, Erdogan said he would not meet with Pence and would only talk to US President Donald Trump about escalating tensions over Ankara's recently launched offensive in Syria. However, Turkey's communications director, Fahrettin Altun, soon retracted the statement, saying the president would indeed meet with the US delegation.
Turkey launched its offensive in Syria on October 9 in a bid to create a "safe zone" along the border that would be free of Kurdish militias, whom it considers an extension of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, which Ankara designates as a terrorist organization.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order authorizing sanctions against Turkish officials and entities, including the defense and energy ministries.
