U.S. President Barack Obama urged that the air operations of Turkey should target Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), even though Turkey has rights to defence itself against the attacks of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Obama said that, Turkey’s air operations should target ISIL rather than the PKK, referring to the ongoing operations over PKK camps in Northern Iraq, responding the Huffington Post Washington Bureau Chief Ryan Grim's question on whether he has concerns about “Turkey’s President Erdoğan’s use of ISIL attacks to launch operations over the PKK”.

“Well, we’ve discussed with the Turks our strong view that ISIL poses the largest threat to the region and we have to stay focused that to the extent the PKK engages in attacks against Turkish targets, it is legitimate for the Turks to try to defend themselves” Obama said, according to Ryan Grim’s article.

On the other hand, Obama urged “But the agreement that we are working on is carefully bound around: How do we close off that border to foreign fighters entering into Syria?” and announced that the works will be based on this particular issue.

According to the report of Huffington Post, Obama had spoken to a group of 10 reporters on the record at the White House last week, hon Middle East policy along with the Iran nuclear deal more broadly.