Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the US - Islamic World Forum in Doha, the Qatari capital, to discuss the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement process and Iran’s nuclear policy in addition to issues such as Cyprus, the Middle East, Iraq, economic cooperation and the fight against terrorism.
The meeting lasted for about an hour although it was planned for 20 minutes. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who paid a visit on Monday to Iran’s capital of Tehran, was also present.
According to the Anatolia news agency, diplomatic sources said Clinton had asked the Turkish delegation to convey a message from the US administration to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The sources did not disclose the content of the message. Furthermore, Davutoğlu was reportedly optimistic about further diplomatic steps for a peaceful resolution of the Iranian issue. Turkey has repeatedly offered to serve as mediator on the nuclear issue and has sought to persuade Iran to swap its low enriched uranium for uranium that has been enriched to a higher level abroad.
On the normalization process with Armenia, the Turkish side said Turkey had fulfilled its responsibilities and complained about an Armenian constitutional court ruling on the Armenia-Turkey protocols, saying it had slowed down and hampered the process and had produced several complications.
In the meeting Erdoğan also underlined that Ankara has been of the opinion that normalization between Armenia and Turkey would gradually provide a comprehensive settlement of disputes in the South Caucasus and called on the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) Minsk Group to propel its efforts forward.
The parties highlighted the importance of continuing the negotiation process in Cyprus and voiced their common understanding on the continuation of US-Turkey cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
Economic cooperation was also among the list of issues discussed in the meeting. In order to boost economic relations, Turkish State Minister Zafer Çağlayan will pay an official visit to the United States in the coming weeks under an economic partnership program between the two countries. During the meeting, Clinton said she understood and shared the Turkish prime minister’s sensitivity towards the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Turkish dailies yesterday claimed a quarrel broke out between Erdoğan’s foreign relations adviser Ambassador Fuat Tanlay and US Ambassador to Qatar Joseph LeBaron during the Erdoğan-Clinton meeting when the latter was not allowed to go into the meeting room by Turkish officials.
LeBaron reportedly insisted on entering the room and warned Clinton that she had another meeting with the Qatari emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, when the meeting exceeded the time allotted. LeBaron reportedly said: “This meeting should end. There is a meeting with the Qatar sheikh and is more important than this one.” In response to LeBaron’s remarks, Tanlay said that Turkey cannot be offended and that the US ambassador had overstepped his bounds. “You cannot decide on our importance,” he said. Other officials who were present reportedly calmed the two diplomats down after the tension broke out.
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