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US President Trump speaks with his Turkish counterpart Erdoğan on peace efforts

U.S. President Donald Trump discussed with Turkish President Erdoğan over Middle East peace efforts in a telephone conversation on Friday after he had announced on Twitter that he would call his Turkish counterpart.

Anadolu Agency & Reuters WORLD
Published November 24,2017
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and American counterpart Donald Trump spoke over the phone Friday to discuss the recently-concluded Sochi summit, Syria crisis and bilateral ties, according to a Turkish presidential source.

The leaders also discussed other regional issues, the source, who spoke anonymously due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

Phone call with Trump was 'fruitful', Turkish President Erdoğan tweeted from his official account after the phone conversation with U.S. president.


* Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavusoğlu, Intelligence Chief Hakan Fidan, Chief Advisor Ibrahim Kalın and Private Secretary Hasan Doğan were also present during the phone call.

Trump called Erdoğan after he posted that tweet: "Will be speaking to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey this morning about bringing peace to the mess I inherited in the Middle East," he said in a post on Twitter, in an apparent reference to the Obama administration.

He also added via another post on Twitter that "I will get it all done, but what a mistake, in lives and dollars (6 trillion), to be there in the first place!"

At a summit in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Wednesday, Russia's Vladimir Putin won the backing of Turkey and Iran to host a Syrian peace congress, taking the central role in a major diplomatic push to finally end a civil war all but won by Moscow's ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

During the meeting at the Black Sea resort, the three leaders meet agreed on gathering a congress of Syrian groups to advance a political solution for the war-torn nation.