The United States and Turkey pulled back from the brink of a potentially disastrous crisis on Friday, agreeing to normalize badly strained relations over Syria and other issues that had threatened the NATO allies' longstanding ties. Turkey is riled over Washington's support to the YPG — the top U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group. Turkey considers it a "terrorist" group linked to Kurdish rebels fighting inside Turkey. Cavusoglu said Turkey understood the law, but that air defense is a critical national security concern and Ankara had been unable to find another supplier. Meanwhile, the European Union's foreign policy chief urged Turkey to "show restraint" in northern Syria and focus its efforts on the fight against IS.

Source: ABC News February 16, 2018 08:03 UTC