Trump told Turkey U.S. would only look at possible extradition of Turkish cleric: spokeswoman

Thomson Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan that Washington "would take a look at" the possibility of extraditing a U.S.-based Muslim cleric that Ankara suspects of being behind a 2016 coup attempt, but he made no commitment, the White House said on Tuesday.

"The only thing he said is that we would take a look at it," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters. "Nothing further at this point beyond that ... nothing committal at all in that process."

Turkey's foreign minister said on Sunday that Trump told Erdogan Washington was working on extraditing the cleric, Fethullah Gulen.

Asked about the comment on Monday, a White House official said only that Trump did not commit to extraditing Gulen, offering no further detail on the conversation.

(Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Tim Ahmann; Editing by David Alexander)

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