Biden apologizes to Turkish president for ISIS remarks
US Vice President Joe Biden has apologized to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after alleging that the leader allowed foreign fighters allied with the Islamic State to cross into Syria. Erdogan was outraged over the remark.
READ MORE:Biden blames US allies in Middle East for rise of ISIS
Biden presented his apology in a phone call to Erdogan on
Saturday, the White House said.
Speaking at Harvard University on Thursday, Biden claimed that
"President Erdogan told me, he is an old friend, said you
were right, we let too many people through, now we are trying to
seal the border.”
Responding to the remark, Erdogan said he “never admitted any
mistakes.”
"If Biden told these words, then he will be history to me. I
never uttered such remarks," the Turkish leader said.
“He should apologize. I'm saying this clearly. And we won't
accept slender, indirect explanations.”
During the phone call with Erdogan, Biden “apologized for any
implication that Turkey or other allies and partners in the
region had intentionally supplied or facilitated the growth of
ISIL (IS, ISIS) or other violent extremists in Syria," the
White House said.
On Thursday, Biden blamed America’s allies in the region –
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – for allowing
the rise of the Islamic State, saying they supported extremists
with money and weapons in their eagerness to oust the Assad
regime in Syria.
READ MORE:Biden says US 'embarrassed' EU into sanctioning Russia over Ukraine
“Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria,” he said. He went on to explain that such allies were “so determined to take down Assad,” that in a sense they started a “proxy Sunni-Shia war” by pouring “hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons” towards anyone who would fight against the Syrian leader.
