Washington and Ankara are ready to work together to push ISIL terrorists out of their de facto capital of Raqa in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published Wednesday.

Erdogan said he had agreed with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in China to do “what is necessary” to drive ISIL out of Raqa.

“Raqa is the most important centre of ISIL,” Erdogan told Turkish journalists onboard his plane as he returned from China.

“Obama wants to do something together especially on the issue of Raqa,” he said. “I said there would be no problem from our perspective.”

“I said ‘our soldiers should come together and discuss, then what is necessary will be done’,” Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.

Without giving further details, he said: “What can be done will become clear after the discussions.”

Source: AFP