Turkey calls for broad ISIL strategy, US seeks team-up

US President Barack Obama (R) and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) hold a bilateral meeting on the second day of the NATO 2014 Summit at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, South Wales, on September 5, 2014. AFP Photo

Turkey wants the world to come together to find a way of eliminating the threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant amid a US push to create a new coalition of the willing against the jihadist group Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on NATO allies to develop a comprehensive strategy to combat terrorist organizations that have emerged from the chaos in Syria, a clear reference to jihadist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Erdoğan’s call came as the United States said it was forming a “core coalition,” including Turkey, to battle ISIL militants in Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama said ‘intelligence-sharing on foreign fighters’ was a main issue in his meeting with Erdoğan.

Obama said the ISIL threat was also discussed. Erdoğan reportedly stressed that he would like to see the “strategic partnership” between Ankara and Washington in action, in a possible reference to his calls for the deportation of Pennsylvania-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Before meeting with Obama, Erdoğan underlined that a comprehensive strategy should be developed against terrorist organizations which have been exploiting the environment of chaos as a result of inaction against “the atrocities of the Syrian regime.”

Erdoğan’s speech came at the same time as the United States called for the creation of a broad international coalition against ISIL by the time of the U.N. General Assembly this month. “There is no time to waste in building a broad international coalition to degrade and, ultimately, to destroy the threat posed by ISIL,” Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said in a joint statement.

Britain and the U.S....

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