Turkey has bristled at the US military's alliance with Syrian Kurds to fight ISIS, fearing the Syrian group will one day help Turkish Kurds make a push for independence. But Tillerson "has a tough set of meetings and a tough job ahead of him when he's in Ankara," said Ross Wilson, who was the US ambassador to Turkey from 2005 to 2008. Wilson added that the "decisions to cooperate with the YPG have been military ones, not strategic ones about calibrating the relationship with Turkey. While the US backed away from the plan and Tillerson said it had been "misportrayed, misdescribed," tensions escalated as Turkey moved into Afrin. A State Department official, speaking on background, said Tillerson would deliver the same message privately to Erdogan that the US has been stressing publicly.

Source: CNN February 15, 2018 06:02 UTC