Kerry: Turkey ready to seal border with ISIS area

Istanbul – Turkey is committed to sealing its border along areas in Syria controlled by Islamic State, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, stressing that Ankara has a vested interest in severing smuggling routes used by the extremist group.

“There is a 98km section of the border remaining to be closed,” Kerry said while attending a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Brussels, adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was in “complete agreement” with a plan to seal the area off.

“President Erdogan is committed to doing that,” Kerry said.

Turkey, a Nato member, is also part of a US-led coalition battling ISIS, although it has faced sharp criticism in recent years that it had been reluctant to crack down on the extremist group and turned a blind eye to jihadists heading to Syria.

Reports in the past from Turkey’s border with Syria have repeatedly said that Islamic State was smuggling oil, a key source of its revenues, to underground dealers in Turkey. Ankara has since stepped up its border security.