The US and Turkey had "productive" talks on cooperating in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Turkey's capital Ankara, the US embassy in Ankara stated on Saturday.
Special US Presidential Envoy Gen. John Allen and Deputy Special Presidential Envoy Brett McGurk, held talks with Under Secretary in the Turkish Foreign Ministry Feridun Sinirlioglu about cooperation in fighting against IS militants, Xinhua news agency reported citing the embassy statement.
They discussed a number of ways in which the US and Turkey can broaden and deepen cooperation on anti-IS efforts, including countering the flow of foreign fighters, said the statement.
As part of the anti-IS coalition, Turkey and the US have close bilateral cooperation, particularly in focusing on a programme for training and equipping Syrian rebels in Hirfanli military base in Turkey's central Anatolian Kirsehir province.
In February, Ankara and Washington signed an agreement to provide training and equipment for Syrian opposition forces, aiming to train a total of 15,000 Syrian opposition fighters during a three-year period, 5,000 of whom will be trained in Turkey.
However, the programme has been delayed several times as, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, it takes a longer time to transfer US soldiers to Turkey.
"It's all about technical reasons," Cavusoglu said on Monday, responding to claims that Ankara and Washington disagree with each other over the purpose of boosting the combat readiness of the Syrian rebels.
Ankara wants the trained fighters to battle both the IS militants and the Syrian government forces, while the White House says the programme would only be used to counter the IS forces.
The Turkish government has long been backing the rebels to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, while Damascus slams Ankara for supporting terrorism in the war-torn country.
