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Turkey not to allow “terrorism-supporting” countries to join NATO: president

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Turkey will not allow “terrorism-supporting” countries to enter NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday.

Sweden and Finland have expressed earlier their condemnation to terrorism, but Erdogan believes they are not sincere or honest enough.

A joint Swedish-Finnish delegation held talks in Ankara with Turkish officials and diplomats on Wednesday in an attempt to resolve disputes with the middle east country.

But last week’s negotiations were not at the “expected level”, Erdogan told journalists on the plane after his flight from Azerbaijan to Turkey.

“They have expectations, but they did not take the necessary steps regarding Turkey,” the state-run TRT broadcaster quoted Erdogan as saying.

On the contrary, they kept on the activities which Turkey has been criticizing, the Turkish president said.

“As long as Tayyip Erdogan is the head of the Republic of Turkey, we definitely cannot say ‘yes’ to countries, which ‘support terrorism’, entering the NATO,” he said.

Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO last week following the Russia-Ukraine conflict that erupted in February.

NATO allies, except for Turkey, have welcomed the two countries’ proposals. Accession of new member states requires consensus of all 30 existing NATO members.

The Turkish side, citing the Swedish and Finnish ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other anti-Turkey groups, objected to their entry into the alliance.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.

Turkey also accuses the two countries of harboring members of the Gulen Movement, which Ankara says is behind a failed military coup attempt in 2016.

Turkey demanded “concrete assurances” from Sweden and Finland for “termination of support” to these groups, and requested the lifting of arms sanctions against Ankara.

Erdogan also said that he would have telephone conversations with the presidents of Russia and Ukraine respectively on Monday, noting that Turkey will continue to encourage both sides to resolve relevant issues through dialogue and other diplomatic channels.

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Zelenskiy says Ukraine has ‘low chance’ of survival without US backing

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Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without U.S. support, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday after phone calls this week by U.S. President Donald Trump with Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelenskiy said in an interview on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”

An excerpt was released on Friday from the interview, which will be broadcast on Sunday. Reuters reported.

Trump discussed the war on Wednesday in separate calls with Putin and Zelenskiy, in the U.S. president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end quickly.

Trump later said he did not think it was practical for Kyiv to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get back all its land. Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.

Zelenskiy said in the interview that Putin wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war but to get a ceasefire deal to lift some global sanctions on Russia and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions, because of ceasefire,” Zelenskiy said.

Trump said his call with Putin was a good conversation that lasted over an hour, while the Kremlin said it lasted nearly an hour and a half. Zelenskiy’s office said Trump and Zelenskiy spoke for about an hour. Trump said the call “went very well.”

 

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US VP Vance threatens sanctions, military action to push Putin into Ukraine deal

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U.S. Vice President JD Vance said the U.S. could hit Moscow with sanctions and potential military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance said in an interview with the newspaper, according to Reuters.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday discussed the war with Russian President Vladimir Putin and separately with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and told U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the nearly three-year-long conflict.

The phone calls came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Ukraine’s military allies in Brussels that a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders – before Russia annexed Crimea – was unrealistic and that the U.S. does not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution.

Ukrainians on Thursday worried that Trump was preparing to sell out their country following his phone call Putin.

However, Trump on Thursday said that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia. He told reporters at the White House that Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.

Kyiv said it would be premature to speak with Moscow at a security conference on Friday.

“I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people,” the newspaper quoted Vance as saying.

“The president is not going to go in this with blinders on,” Vance said. “He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal.’”

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US Navy jet crashed off San Diego coast, crew members safe

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A U.S. Navy jet crashed off the coast of San Diego on Wednesday but both crew members were safely recovered, a U.S. official said.

The official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the EA-18G Growler, used for electronic warfare, was based out of Washington State, Reuters reported.

The reason for the crash was unclear, but the Coast Guard had rescued both the pilots from the two-seater jet.

U.S. military aviation safety has been in focus after an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet in Washington D.C. last month.

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