Barack Obama will visit Turkey next month, fulfilling a campaign pledge to travel to a Muslim country during his first 100 days in power.
By Tim Shipman in Washington
Last Updated: 4:35PM GMT 07 Mar 2009
Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, made the announcement on Saturday as she met with the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seeking to enlist Turkish help in moving forward the Middle East peace process.
Mr Obama’s visit to Turkey will be an opening step in his long-standing promise to improve relations with the Muslim world. The visit, which will follow the G20 summit in London on April 2, is expected to coincide with the Second Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, due to be held in Istanbul on April 6 and 7. The forum seeks to “address some of the ongoing tensions and divides across cultures and religions”.
Making a major speech there on US-Muslim relations will enable Mr Obama to tick off another campaign promise. Although by choosing Turkey, which is generally regarded a bastion of moderate Islam, he will opting for a less challenging political environment than if he were to travel to the heart of the Arab world.
US-Turkish relations were strained when the Turkish government refused to let George W. Bush use their territory for an invasion of Northern Iraq in 2003. But last week Turkey said it was ready to serve as an exit route for U.S. troops pulling out of Iraq.
Turkey is seen as a likely mediator of any Middle East peace deal since it maintains diplomatic relations with Syria, Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group which controls Gaza.
Mrs Clinton said Mr Obama would visit Turkey in the “next month or so.”
She also confirmed that two US envoys had arrived in Syria on Saturday, starting President Obama’s first decisive move towards improving relations with a rogue state which is seen as a key player in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in sponsoring terrorism.
Jeffrey Feltman and Daniel Shapiro, the top Middle Eastern experts in the State Department and the White House National Security Council, held talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem.
The US wants to break Syria away from its close alliance with Iran and hopes to steer the government in Damascus towards a peace deal with Israel and away from support of the Hizbollah terrorist group in Lebanon.
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk, 07 Mar 2009
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