WASHINGTON: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan postponed a White House meeting with President Joe Biden, a source familiar with the situation and a Turkish official said on Friday of a visit that had been tentatively planned for May 9.

A new date will soon be set, the Turkish official said. The source familiar with the matter said it was unclear what prompted the postponement.

A US official noted that the meeting between the Nato allies had never been officially announced.

Representatives for the White House and the State Department had no immediate comment. Erdogan’s office also had no immediate comment on the postponement, reported earlier by Bloomberg.

The meeting would have been the first bilateral visit to Washington since 2019 when Erdogan met then-presidente Donald Trump, a Republican. He and Biden have met a few times at international summits and spoken by phone since the Democratic president took office in Jan 2021.

Ties between the US and Turkiye have been long strained by differences on a range of issues. While they have thawed since Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership bid earlier this year, tensions persist over Syria and Russia and the Gaza crisis.

Erdogan visited Iraq this week. Last weekend, he met Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul, the first meeting between Erdogan and a Hamas delegation headed by Haniyeh since the gaza crisis unfolded on Oct 7.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2024