The representative of the United States before the UN Security Council, Ambassador Samantha Power, is on a four-day visit to Jordan and Turkey, which started on 10 June. In Amman, she was received by King Abdullah and the Royal Court Chief. In Ankara, she is expected to meet separately with President Gül and Prime Minister Erdoğan.

The CIA is involved in the supervision of mercenaries tied to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), active in Syria and now again in Iraq. The MIT (Turkish secret services) in late May handled the transportation and delivery of the weapons purchased by Saudi Arabia in Ukraine for the ISIL.

Mrs. Power - who displayed a very aggressive attitude against Syria in the Security Council - has been tasked with assessing the possibility of changing U.S. discourse vis-à-vis Damascus. However, her visit comes just as Washington’s relations with Turkey have become strained after the ISIL seized the Turkish consulate in Mosul, taking hostage 15 Turkish diplomats and their families as well as 20 members of the Turkish special forces. In addition, 42 Turkish truck drivers were seized by the jihadists.

The case is reminiscent of the arrest on July 4, 2003, of 11 members of the Turkish special forces by the U.S. army in Sulaimaniyah (Iraq).

Moreover, the ISIL allegedly tried to take control of the tomb of Suleyman Shah, in the Syrian district of Raqqa. This tomb is a sovereign exclave of Turkey which keeps on-site a small garrison under the extraterritoriality clause of the Treaty of Ankara (imposed by the French colonizers in 1921).

Considering itself betrayed by the IEIL, Turkey seized the Security Council of the UN and NATO.