Erdoğan-Biden on call again, as Ankara sets up crisis desk on Iraq

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has discussed the growing insurgency in Iraq with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the second time in three days, while Ankara established a crisis desk to inform the Turkish public daily about 80 Turks taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq.

Biden spoke by phone June 13 with Erdoğan. The White House says they consulted on the danger that the al-Qaida-inspired ISIL poses for regional and global security.
                 
The White House says Biden and Erdoğan agreed that Iraqis must unite to address the security challenges. Biden also affirmed the U.S. offer to help Turkey recover diplomats who were captured in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Biden and Erdoğan last spoke June 11 as insurgents were seizing key Iraqi cities and pressing closer to Baghdad. President Barack Obama says he’s considering military options to help Iraq fight the militants.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government will establish a crisis desk to inform the public daily about the latest developments in Iraq, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said June 13 after a crisis coordination meeting at the Foreign Ministry.

The ISIL have continued their advance in Iraq after seizing Mosul on June 9.

“We are establishing a crisis desk that will work 24 hours a day. It will be a crisis desk in which other ministries will also have representatives. It will answer all of the questions and give us daily analyses [of the situation],” Davutoğlu said in a joint press conference with Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekçi, Energy Minister Taner Yıldız and Transport Minister Lütfi Elvan.

He added that Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru...