Two serious threats are on the horizon to relations between NATO allies Turkey and the United States during the period of the new Obama administration in Washington: the Armenian Genocide resolution and the fallout from the Turkish Prime Minister's encounter with Israeli President Shimon Peres at Davos, according to a veteran U.S. diplomat.

"The style of leadership in Washington now has changed and is quite different from the Bush style. I am optimistic about the future of bilateral ties but there are two very serious problems on the horizon," retired Ambassador James Holmes, president of the American-Turkish Council, told the Hurriyet Daily News & Economic Review,

One issue is the negative repercussions in Washington from a public confrontation between Peres and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the now-infamous Davos panel that ended when the latter walked off stage, he said.

"As popular as that was in Turkey and in much of the Arab world it was received very negatively in the United States and particularly in the American-Jewish community, which has always been a supporter and ally of Turkey," said Holmes. "The American-Jewish community's support for Turkey's position on the Armenian Genocide resolution, for example, is gone. They will not expend any political energy in blocking a resolution or a presidential proclamation."