Mattis: Talks with Turkey centered on ‘absolute honesty and transparency’

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday that the U.S. and Turkey were working to find “common ground” in Syria, despite growing tensions between the two countries. 

“I believe we are finding common ground and there are areas of uncommon ground, where sometimes war just gives you bad alternatives to choose from,” Mattis told reporters after a NATO meeting in Brussels.

Mattis said that Washington and Ankara are engaged in an “absolutely open and honest dialogue” about U.S. and Turkish efforts in Syria. 

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The two countries have been at loggerheads in the region over Washington’s support for a Syrian Kurdish fighting force called the YPG. Ankara says those fighters are linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey who are considered terrorists by the government.

Tensions between the U.S. and Turkey soared last month when Ankara launched a military incursion into Kurdish enclaves in northern Syria, raising concern about a possible confrontation between American and Turkish forces. 

U.S. officials, including Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, have in recent days urged members of the 75-nation coalition fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to refocus their efforts on combating the militants. 

Turkish officials have called on the U.S. to end its support for Syrian Kurds, who have been a key ally of Washington in the efforts to drive ISIS out of Syria. 

Tillerson is set to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Thursday.