FT: Obama Will Need To Convince Erdoğan To Close Borders To ISIL Oil

Nicholas Burns, a former US ambassador to NATO, said on Sunday that the United States will need to convince President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to close Turkey's borders to the export of oil from wells under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“Obama will need to convince a prickly Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, to close his border to the export of Isis-controlled oil,” Burns said in an opinion piece in the Financial Times, where he listed “three critical tests” that NATO leaders will confront during the NATO summit in September.

According to Burns, the three challenges include problems in Ukraine, the Middle East and Afghanistan. “Given all that has happened in the past half-year alone, these three challenges – Vladimir Putin's aggression in Ukraine, the disastrous unraveling of the Middle East and an Afghanistan in peril – may make this among the most consequential summits in Nato's 65-year history,” he wrote.

Erdoğan is expected to attend the NATO summit in Wales, his first since becoming president, following visits to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) and Azerbaijan. Wales will host the NATO summit this year on Sept. 4-5. Erdoğan will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)