The White House Monday denied reports that US President Barack Obama personally warned Turkish Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erodgan that the US will not sell weapons to Turkey if it does not change its position towards Israel, Jerusalem Post reported.
White House spokesman, Dan Burton, confirmed that Obama did not issue any ultimatum to the Turkish prime minister and that the two spoke ten days ago about Iran, the Gaza flotilla and other issues.
Burton told the press that he "really did not know where the accusations came from."
"We have a continuing dialogue with Turkey, but no ultimatum was ever given," Burton added.
The Financial Times reported earlier Monday that Obama had personally warned Erodgan that the US will not sell weapons to Turkey if it does not change its position towards Israel.
The ultimatum would have been particularly important to Turkey, who was reportedly planning to buy American drone aircraft to attack Kurdish group PKK after the US pulls out of Iraq next year.
The Financial Times report suggested that "the president said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill [Congress] . . . about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally."