US eyes best possible Turkey-Israel ties

ANKARA / KABUL

An Afghan policeman stands guard near the wreckage of a NATO helicopter that crashed in Kabul March 16, killing 12 Turkish soldiers on board and four Afghan civilians. REUTERS photo

The United States wants to see the best possible relationship between Turkey and Israel, Washington’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said April 23.

It is in the interest of Turkey, Israel and the U.S. to develop better ties between Ankara and Tel Aviv, Marc Grossman said after being asked about news reports that Turkey vetoed Israel’s participation in next month’s Chicago NATO summit.

Grossman made the comments during a visit to Ankara to exchange views with Turkish officials on Afghanistan ahead of an upcoming NATO summit in Chicago to discuss the country, Anatolia news agency reported. Grossman said he wanted to thank Turkish authorities for their contributions to Afghanistan. Turkey and the U.S. have been pursuing the same policy on Afghanistan, according to Grossman, who said the U.S. hoped this would continue after 2014 when NATO withdraws its forces from Afghanistan. The two countries will continue to play important roles in maintaining security and stability in the Central Asian country, the U.S. official said. When he was told that some in Turkey had started to question their country’s presence in Afghanistan after a helicopter crash in Kabul killed 12 Turkish soldiers, Grossman said such concerns were common to all NATO members, adding that Afghans, Americans, Turks and other nationalities had made many sacrifices in the past decade.
Within the scope of an agreement reached in Bonn, Turkey and the U.S. will continue to contribute to the transition process after the 2014 withdrawal.

Four NATO troops died

Two service members were killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan, while two others died from non-battle related injuries, NATO said yesterday, according to the Associated Press. The coalition said in statements that one service member was killed by an improvised explosive device yesterday, a day after another was killed in similar fashion. NATO said the two other service members died April 24 of non-battle related injuries.