Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that his country was ready to cooperate with the US to liberate the city of al-Raqqa, the main stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, local media reported on Wednesday.
“From now on, we have to show that we exist in the region,” Efe news quoted Erdogan as saying, indicating that such steps should be taken to avoid the settlement of “terrorist groups” such as the IS, Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Kurdish People’s Protection Units in the region.
Erdogan observed that US President Barack Obama “wants” Turkey to work with Washington to retake al-Raqqa from the IS militants.
“Obama particularly wants to do something together (with us) about Raqqa. We have told him that this is not a problem for us,” Erdogan added.
Erdogan also noted that such collaboration could also occur in Iraq, especially in Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city, which fell at the hands of IS jihadis in June 2014.
–IANS