U.S., Turkey to strengthen security cooperation

U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed efforts to deepen cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), during a phone call made Wednesday, the White House said.

The presidents spoke about "deepening our ongoing cooperation in the fight against ISIL and common efforts to bring security and stability to Iraq and a political settlement to the conflict in Syria," the White House said in a press release. "The leaders also discussed efforts to increase cooperation to stem the flow of foreign fighters and secure Turkey's border with Syria."

"It's notable that Turkey is already doing a number of things to support the counter-ISIL coalition," said Josh Earnest at a daily White House press briefing held here Thursday. "Turkey has taken important steps to curb the flow of foreign fighters."

According to news reports in Turkey and the U.S., an agreement on using the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey to strike ISIL was finalized Wednesday, citing government sources.

Earnest refused to comment on whether the presidents had come to an agreement on Incirlik. "I'm not able to talk about some of those issues because of specific operational security concerns," he said. "So what we have acknowledged is that our coalition has access to a variety of bases throughout Europe and the Middle East for a variety of missions."

"But for operational security reasons, I can't get into which bases are used for which purpose," Earnest concluded. Endite