Turkey's FM discusses leaked cables with Clinton

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Monday with Turkey's foreign minister over the massive leak of U.S. documents, her first face-to-face damage control effort in the wake of the diplomatic embarrassment.

"They did talk about the WikiLeaks issues and the foreign minister appreciated the direct and candid comments the secretary provided," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters after the scheduled talks.

He said Clinton held "a very productive session" with Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose country — a key regional US ally — finds itself in the spotlight in the wake of the latest WikiLeaks revelations. The whistle-blower website is dumping more than a quarter million documents onto the Internet and to select media outlets, including 7,918 cables from the U.S. embassy in Ankara, the post with the most cables in the leaked stash.

Shortly before stepping into the closed-door discussions, Davutoğlu said he would address "a huge variety of agenda items" in his meeting with Clinton, "including the leaked documents."

One cable dated November 2009 said Washington was "wondering if it could any longer count on Turkey to help contain Iran's profound challenge to regional peace."

Crowley stressed that Davutoğlu "indicated that Turkey continues to support and encourage Iran to join in the P5-plus-1 process" to bring Tehran to the negotiating table to discuss its nuclear program.

Davutoğlu, with Clinton at his side, said Turkey maintained a "strategic partnership" with Washington — comments echoed by the top U.S. diplomat.

"Turkey and the United States have one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world," Clinton told reporters before the meeting.

"We are very committed to continuing to strengthen and deepen that relationship, and it is always very constructive for me to meet with the foreign minister because we have so much that needs to be done that only Turkey and the United States can do together."

Davutoğlu stressed that Ankara maintained a "principled ... time-tested transparent foreign policy, including our relationship with the U.S.

"And we will follow the same principled foreign policy to achieve regional and global peace in coordination with the American administration."

Clinton described Davutoğlu as a "colleague and a friend" with whom she has worked closely over the last 22 months of President Barack Obama's administration.

But the bilateral relationship is sure to be tested in the fallout of the leak of U.S. documents, which included sensitive and blunt assessments of Turkish leaders, including Davutoğlu.

German news magazine Der Spiegel, among the publications that posted the documents, highlighted cables in which U.S. diplomats questioned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's dependability as a partner and how he has surrounded himself with "an iron ring of sycophantic [but contemptuous] advisers."

Davutoğlu in one cable is portrayed as having little understanding of politics beyond Turkey.

A high-ranking government adviser, quoted by U.S. diplomats, describes Davutoğlu as "exceptionally dangerous" and warns that he would use his Islamist influence on Erdoğan.

After her meeting with Davutoğlu, Clinton said the United States "deeply regrets the disclosure of any information that was intended to be confidential."

She also sought to minimize the fallout from the embarrassment, stressing she was "confident that the partnerships and relationships that we have built in this administration will withstand this challenge."

'Attack on the world'

Before her meeting with Davutoğlu on Monday, Clinton said the leak was an attack not only on the United States but also against the international community.

Clinton said that WikiLeaks had acted illegally in posting the material and that the Obama administration was taking "aggressive steps to hold responsible those who stole this information."

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," Clinton said. "It is an attack on the international community: the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity."

"It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems," she told reporters at the State Department.

She acknowledged that the newly released cables that revealed deep concerns among Arab world leaders about Iran's nuclear ambitions have a basis in reality.

"It should not be a surprise to anyone that Iran is a great concern," she said, adding that the comments reported in the documents "confirm the fact that Iran poses a very serious threat in the eyes of her neighbors."

Clinton's comments came before she left Washington on Monday on a four-nation tour of Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. She alluded to discussions she expects to have about the leaked documents with officials from Europe and elsewhere. Some of those diplomats may be cited in the leaked documents, which if so will confront her with uncomfortable conversations.


/Hurriyet Daily News/