Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Wednesday said he hoped Rex Tillerson’s exit as secretary of state would improve relations between the U.S. and Turkey.
Speaking to the media in Ankara before leaving for Baku, Azerbaijan Binali Yildirim said: “Whoever comes in, Turkey’s stance is clear. It is not so important to us what the new secretary thinks about Turkey.”
“I hope healthier relations [with the U.S.] could be developed after that,” said Yildirim.
The relations between the U.S. and Turkey do not depend on individuals, he added.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced CIA Director Mike Pompeo as his pick to be the country’s new secretary of state, ousting Rex Tillerson.
The White House and State Department have had a number of high-profile clashes after Tillerson took the post as America’s top diplomat, including a glaring split during a dispute between Qatar and its Arab Gulf neighbors.
Trump and Tillerson have also been at odds over a number of key foreign policy issues, including climate change and the nuclear deal with Iran, which he cited shortly after making his announcement on Twitter.
"We disagreed on things," Trump told reporters before heading to California. "When you look at the Iran deal, I think it's terrible, I guess he thought it was OK. I wanted to either break it or do something, and he felt a little bit differently."