Turkey, US ease strains on Islamic State but differences remain
ISTANBUL - Turkey and the United States smoothed over some differences in the fight against Islamic State during a weekend visit by US Vice President Joe Biden, but the talks heralded little in the way of deeper military cooperation between the NATO allies.
Biden ended two days of meetings in Istanbul with no guarantee that Turkey would step up its military cooperation by, for example, allowing the use of Turkish air space or a US base in its southern town of Incirlik for coalition air strikes.
Turkish leaders, in turn, received no signal that their demands for Syrian President Bashar Assad's removal from power or that Washington establish a no-fly zone in Syria would be met.
But officials on both sides said the differences were more about strategy than objectives, and the meetings - including a four-hour discussion between Biden and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan - had been an opportunity to clear the air and set a sometimes acrimonious relationship on a surer footing.
