The White House has said on Friday that the United States President Donald Trump is intended to nominate veteran diplomat David Satterfield as the US ambassador to Turkey. A NATO ally Turkey which border Iran, Iraq and Syria, plays a major role in the region.
According to Reuters news reports, Satterfield has been working as the acting assistance secretary of state, since 2017, for near eastern affairs. Previously, he had served as the ambassador to Lebanon, the US deputy chief of missing in Iraq, director for near eastern affairs on the national security council, also in Saudi Arabia, Syria and Tunisia.
The conflicts in Syria following the US president’s announcement to withdraw its American troops from Syria, the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi’s consulate Istanbul on October 2last year, as well as Turkey’s demand to the US for the extradition of the US-based Muslim cleric from Washington, are some of the main issues in between both the countries diplomatic relation.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has welcomed the US president’s decision last year in December to pullout its troops from Syria. The US has backed Syrian Kurdish YPG forces while Turkey considered the group as a terrorist organization.
In November, Erdogan said Turkey would not accept by renewed US sanctions over Iranian oil and shipping industries as they were focused at “unbalancing the world”.
Trump has, in November 2018, said he would not consider the extradition of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkey has long blamed for a failed 2016 coup.