Harf: Turkey working closely with US to stop flow of ISIS fighters
by Nurbanu Kızıl
ISTANBULJan 15, 2015 - 12:00 am GMT+3
by Nurbanu Kızıl
Jan 15, 2015 12:00 am
Marie Harf, the deputy spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State has said in a press statement released on Wednesday that the U.S. is working very closely with Turkish authorities to identify and block the passage through Turkey of foreign fighters who want to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) to Syria.
Speaking at the Daily Press Briefing, Harf underlined that Turkey is trying its best to stop the flow of foreign fighters, and that it is cooperating with the U.S. In response to a question about what U.S. allies such as Turkey are doing in the fight against ISIS and terrorism, Harf said "It's a huge problem," adding that the borders are very long and often very porous.
"And believe me, Turkey is affected by this more than almost any other country given their geographic proximity," she said, underlining that Turkey is aware that ISIS and terrorism pose a serious threat and a problem.
She said that Turkey is working very closely with the U.S. to try and close the borders to crack down on the flow of foreign fighters.
Harf referred to the U.N. Security Council resolution that called on all member states to stem the flow of foreign fighters to Syria and highlighted that there is a concerted international effort in the fight against ISIS.
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the minister of Foreign Affairs, recently said that upon her arrival in Turkey, they had shared intelligence with France on Hayat Boumeddienne, the partner of a Paris terror suspect who took people hostage in a kosher supermarket and killed four people, but to the dismay of Turkish authorities, no action was taken by France .
Turkish authorities have consistently asserted that international cooperation and intelligence sharing are crucial to stopping the flow of foreign fighters to Iraq and Syria.
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