The White House on Monday denied press reports that President Barack Obama warned Turkey it could lose its chance to obtain US-made weapons over its position on Israel and Iran. Britain's Financial Times newspaper quoted a senior official as saying that Obama told Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan that "some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill" referring to the US Congress.
These questions centered on "whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally," said the official. But while he confirmed the two leaders spoke several days ago, White House spokesman Bill Burton denied that any "ultimatum" had been issued to Ankara.
"I really don't know where they would have divined that from," he said. "The president and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago and they talked about Iran and the flotilla and other issues related to that," Burton said. "We obviously have an ongoing dialogue with them, but no such ultimatum was issued."