The Pentagon on Thursday played down an increasingly fractious divide between the United States and Turkey over the fate of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters under attack by Turkish forces in the north of Syria.

“We are not in a crisis,” said Dana White, chief Pentagon spokesperson at a briefing for reporters. “Turkey is an ally, and we are going to work with them, but this current issue, the offensive, is a distraction, and we have to focus as allies in the mission at hand and that’s defeating ISIS.”