By World Israel News Staff
President Donald Trump addressed Israeli concerns over Turkey’s presence in Syria, saying that he would be able to “work something out” between Israel and Turkey, should both sides make “reasonable demands.”
Speaking at a press conference shortly after meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the White House, Trump stressed his strong relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Referring to Erdogan as “very smart,” Trump said he had phoned the Turkish leader after Islamist groups, backed by Ankara, successfully ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power in November 2024.
“I said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve done what nobody’s been able to do in 2,000 years. You’ve taken over Syria.’ With different names, but same thing,” Trump recounted.
“I told [Netanyahu]… ‘Bibi if you have a problem with Turkey, I really think I’m going to be able to work it out,’” he continued.
“You know, I have a very, very good relationship with Turkey and with their leader, and I think we’ll be able to work it out,” he added.
“As long as you are reasonable. You have to be reasonable.”
Israel has carried out regular bombing campaigns against Iranian assets in Syria for years, and is concerned that a Turkish military buildup in the country could limit the IAF’s activities in the country.
In recent years, Erdogan has spouted increasingly unhinged anti-Israel rhetoric, including calling Netanyahu a “child-killing vampire.”
Erdogan also called for Allah to destroy Israel in a public Ramadan prayer last month.
At the conference, Netanyahu praised Trump’s offer to mediate between Israel and Turkey regarding Syria.
“We’ve had neighborly relations with Turkey that have deteriorated, and we don’t want to see Syria being used by anyone, including Turkey, as a base for attack in Israel,” Netanyahu said.
“We discussed how we can avoid this conflict in a variety of ways, and I think we can’t have a better interlocutor than the president of the United States for this purpose,” he added.
Content retrieved from: https://worldisraelnews.com/trump-to-netanyahu-bibi-ill-deal-with-erdogan-in-syria/.
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