White House weighs in on rising Turkey and Syria tensions
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the lawmakers of his Justice and Development Party at the parliament in Ankara. (PHOTO CREDIT: AFP)
June 26th, 2012
01:00 PM ET

White House weighs in on rising Turkey and Syria tensions

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(CNN)–White House spokesman Jay Carney Tuesday condemned Syria's shoot down of a Turkish military plane last week calling the action "unacceptable". Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as the president traveled to campaign events in Georgia and Florida, Carney commended Turkey for what he called its "measured" response.
Carney said the United States stands by Turkey and its allies and will work with Turkey to hold Syria's Bashar al-Assad regime accountable. The incident, which occurred last Friday when the Turkish Phantom F-4 was shot down as it flew over Syrian waters, raised even more tension between Turkey and Syria, two heavily armed regional powers.
Carney said Syrians have, in his words, paid for Assad's "hubris and lies" and the spokesman again called for the international community to come together to remove the dictator.
But asked about Syria's regional ally Russia which has been resistant to backing Assad's removal, Carney would only say the United States has had "productive" conversations with Russia and admitted the two countries have "differed" on how to handle the growing violence in Syria
Topics: Jay Carney • NATO • Russia • Syria
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soundoff (8 Responses)
  1. John

    What? Arab Spring is good – didn't the dems tell us this?
    Where are all you FOX News haters. Seems to me they were right on with this while the lib dems were throwing a party for the middle east.

    June 26, 2012 at 2:17 pm |
  2. NObama 2012

    Turkey is now islamist controlled, so is Libya, and we are trying real hard to help the muslim brotherhood in Egypt (John the-idiot-kerry has been there (Egypt) several times meeting with the brotherhood mobsters) so obama supports Turkey. But then obama does have muslim genes and you are what you are...problem is we are Americans and islamist radicals have deemed us their enemy...so obama why are you supporting our enemies?

    June 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm |
  3. Matt

    Surprise along time ago they use to be friends and united against Israel, what happened. Israel threaten by NATO via Turkey.

    June 26, 2012 at 4:23 pm |
  4. Matt

    America in decline and the EU as the new superpower anti-Israel (peace process, Temple) what happened to the EU, new parties controlling parliament pro-Israel, EU breaking up. What happened.

    June 26, 2012 at 4:25 pm |
  5. Frank Marshall Davis

    This is exactly what Obama wanted.

    June 26, 2012 at 5:02 pm |
  6. DEcember 2012

    THE MIDDLE EAST IS FINALLY HAVING A CHANCE AT SELF DETERMINATION. IT IS TIME THEY WORKED OUT THEIR OWN PROBLEMS. OF COURSE, THE REPUBLITARD HAWKS ARE RUNNING AROUND LIKE HEADLESS CHICKENS BECAUSE WE ARE NOT BOMBING ANOTHER COUNTRY YET AGAIN WITH THE BLOOD OF OUR BRAVE FEW AND AT THE EXPENSE OF THE TAXPAYERS.

    June 26, 2012 at 9:51 pm |
  7. mumbledork

    Hmmm, unacceptable. That surely will make the Syrians think.

    June 27, 2012 at 2:13 am |
  8. mumbledork

    White House: We have our head up our ....

    June 27, 2012 at 2:15 am |