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Intel: Turkey downplays Erdogan’s phone call with Trump

The White House disclosed Jan. 28 details of a call between President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan attends a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Istanbul, Turkey, January 24, 2020. REUTERS/Umit Bektas - RC2EME9CRYDD

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px 'Times New Roman'; -webkit-text-stroke: #000000} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} span.s2 {text-decoration: underline ; font-kerning: none; color: #0463c1; -webkit-text-stroke: 0px #0463c1} The White House disclosed on Jan. 28 details of a call between President Donald Trump and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, noting the two leaders discussed a wide array of contentious issues troubling the two NATO allies. Erdogan’s office issued its own readout of the call, framing it as a “courtesy call” in the wake of the earthquake that struck eastern Turkey over the weekend. The Turkish statement downplayed the geopolitical issues the White House said Trump raised, ranging from Libya to tensions in the eastern Mediterranean to Syria.

Why it matters:  White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said that Trump and Erdogan discussed “the need to eliminate foreign interference and maintain the cease-fire in Libya.”

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