Ankara — Turkey said on Thursday that it had the right to close a key air base used by the US-led coalition to strike jihadists in Syria, as tension mounts between Ankara and Washington. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said Ankara could close Incirlik air base in Adana province, southern Turkey, as part of its sovereign right. "We always have in our hands the right to say ‘we will close it’ but as I said, the conditions will be assessed," Kalin told 24 TV channel. But he added that Turkish authorities were not conducting any urgent assessments to decide whether to close the base to coalition planes. Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria and allows western war planes to use Incirlik as a base for air raids. Turkey and the US are also allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or Nato. Kalin’s comments came after Turkish ministers hit back at the US over what they perceive as a lack of support for its own intervention in northern S...
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