Teil 4 / ERdogan bei Trump im weissen Haus / Ansprache 16. Mai 2017

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump will hold his first face-to-face meeting with Turkey's president Tuesday amid accusations that Trump gave Russian officials classified intelligence from a foreign ally.

Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are expected to address the Syrian civil war, refugee crisis and the fight against the Islamic State group, including the U.S. decision to arm Syrian Kurdish fighters despite Turkey's vehement objections.

But the meeting will take place with a White House still responding to what a senior U.S. official said was disclosure of classified information about an Islamic State terror threat involving laptop computers on aircraft. Trump shared the threat in a meeting with Russia's foreign minister and U.S. ambassador in the Oval Office last week, according to the official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

The matter could emerge in Trump's meeting with Erdogan. The U.S. is relying on regional allies including Turkey for intelligence-sharing and military assistance as it crafts a Syria policy, particularly as Iran and Russia work to bolster Syrian President Bashar Assad's government.

Trump launched cruise missiles last month at a Syrian air base after accusing Assad of using chemical weapons. But the president hasn't outlined a strategy to quell the six-year civil war or usher Assad out of power, which his administration says will be needed to stabilize the Arab country.

Tension was expected already for the Erdogan talks, after the U.S. announced last week that it would arm Kurdish Syrian militants to help them fight IS. Turkey has been pressuring the U.S. to drop support for the militants and doesn't want them spearheading an operation to retake IS' self-declared capital of Raqqa.

Turkey believes the Kurds in Syria are linked to a Turkish Kurdish group, known as the PKK, which the U.S., the European Union and Turkey all consider a terrorist organization. The U.S. sees the Syrian Kurds as their best battlefield partner on the ground in northern Syria.

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