Erdogan hopes to rebuild US ties

ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said Turkey hoped to rebuild relations with its Nato ally the United States following a bitter standoff over the detention of an American pastor.

"God willing, we hope to solve the problems with America within the shortest time and redevelop relations in the political and economic fields with the spirit of strategic partnership," Erdogan said in an address to the opening of parliament.

The dispute has centred on the almost two-year detention of evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson on terror-related and espionage charges, and caused the Turkish lira to take a beating.

President Donald Trump said he had doubled tariffs on Turkish aluminium and steel over Brunson’s detention, with Ankara responding in kind. "We are determined to fight -- within the boundaries of diplomacy and law -- against this distorted approach which imposes sanctions on our country by using as a pretext a priest who is on trial for his murky relations with terror groups," Erdogan said.

Erdogan accused Washington of going down the "wrong path of seeking to solve political and legal problems through threats and blackmail rather than dialogue". This would "actually cause the biggest harm to the United States in the medium and long term," he added. Brunson, who has lived in Turkey for a quarter-century, runs a small evangelical Protestant church in the western city of Izmir. He is currently under house arrest.