Obama’s Mideast envoy to hold talks in Ankara
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hurriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 26, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - US President Obama plans to dispatch his Middle East envoy to the region in an effort to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. George Mitchell is also expected to meet Foreign Minister Babacan in Ankara next week.
George Mitchell, the special envoy of the U.S. administration, will hold talks in Ankara next week to discuss ways to ensure a durable and sustainable cease-fire in Gaza after Israel’s deadly offensive.
"I talked with Hillary Clinton (U.S. Secretary of State) late Saturday. She said she had ordered Mitchell to visit Turkey during his regional tour and expressed the importance she gave to a meeting between myself and Mitchell," Turkey’s foreign minister, Ali Babacan, told reporters yesterday before his departure to Brussels where he will meet European Union ministers to discuss the Gaza peace.
Mitchell’s visit will be the first official encounter between Ankara and Washington since Barack Obama took office as the 44th president of the United States last week.
Mitchell will begin his weeklong tour Tuesday. He is expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday night and hold talks over the following two days. He is to meet Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday. A western diplomat said Mitchell was likely to go to Saudi Arabia but said Syria was not on his schedule.
Prime Minister keeps criticizing Israel
Babacan said it was not yet sure when Mitchell would arrive in Ankara but diplomats were working to arrange a meeting this week. Turkey engaged an active diplomacy to end the Israeli offensive and to reach a cease-fire, but its pro-Hamas stance stirred reactions from Israel and the Jewish lobby.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in an interview with London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, continued to criticize Israel and accused it of violating the cease-fire during the six-month truce last year. Acknowledging that Hamas also made mistakes but obeyed the truce, Erdoğan said, "Israel’s violation of the cease-fire played a role in the provocation of Hamas."
In response to a question about the reaction of the Jewish lobby in the United States, Babacan said Turkey’s policy and the government’s reaction was limited to the Israeli government.
"Our prime minister elucidated several times that anti-Semitism was in fact a crime against humanity. Our reaction was not against a specific ethnic or religious group. We implemented a similar policy during the Russia-Georgia war last August," he said.
Erdoğan congratulates Obama with message
Four days after Obama assumed his post, Erdoğan sent him a written message of congratulations, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Praising Obama for his positive messages during his speech while taking the presidential oath, Erdoğan said Obama’s reference to multilateralism and dialogue was promising for world peace.
He described the bilateral relations as "strategic" and important for regional and global peace. Erdoğan invited his counterpart to attend the Alliance of Civilizations’ meeting that will take place in April in Istanbul.
EU foreign ministers were scheduled to meet yesterday with counterparts from the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to study ways to support Arab nations in new Middle East peace moves.
"We want to talk to the four of them about how we get the region behind a meaningful peace process. We need the broader support of the Arab world," an EU diplomat said ahead of the talks.
"I talked with Hillary Clinton (U.S. Secretary of State) late Saturday. She said she had ordered Mitchell to visit Turkey during his regional tour and expressed the importance she gave to a meeting between myself and Mitchell," Turkey’s foreign minister, Ali Babacan, told reporters yesterday before his departure to Brussels where he will meet European Union ministers to discuss the Gaza peace.
Mitchell’s visit will be the first official encounter between Ankara and Washington since Barack Obama took office as the 44th president of the United States last week.
Mitchell will begin his weeklong tour Tuesday. He is expected to arrive in Israel on Tuesday night and hold talks over the following two days. He is to meet Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday. A western diplomat said Mitchell was likely to go to Saudi Arabia but said Syria was not on his schedule.
Prime Minister keeps criticizing Israel
Babacan said it was not yet sure when Mitchell would arrive in Ankara but diplomats were working to arrange a meeting this week. Turkey engaged an active diplomacy to end the Israeli offensive and to reach a cease-fire, but its pro-Hamas stance stirred reactions from Israel and the Jewish lobby.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in an interview with London-based Al-Hayat newspaper, continued to criticize Israel and accused it of violating the cease-fire during the six-month truce last year. Acknowledging that Hamas also made mistakes but obeyed the truce, Erdoğan said, "Israel’s violation of the cease-fire played a role in the provocation of Hamas."
In response to a question about the reaction of the Jewish lobby in the United States, Babacan said Turkey’s policy and the government’s reaction was limited to the Israeli government.
"Our prime minister elucidated several times that anti-Semitism was in fact a crime against humanity. Our reaction was not against a specific ethnic or religious group. We implemented a similar policy during the Russia-Georgia war last August," he said.
Erdoğan congratulates Obama with message
Four days after Obama assumed his post, Erdoğan sent him a written message of congratulations, the Anatolia news agency reported yesterday. Praising Obama for his positive messages during his speech while taking the presidential oath, Erdoğan said Obama’s reference to multilateralism and dialogue was promising for world peace.
He described the bilateral relations as "strategic" and important for regional and global peace. Erdoğan invited his counterpart to attend the Alliance of Civilizations’ meeting that will take place in April in Istanbul.
EU foreign ministers were scheduled to meet yesterday with counterparts from the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey to study ways to support Arab nations in new Middle East peace moves.
"We want to talk to the four of them about how we get the region behind a meaningful peace process. We need the broader support of the Arab world," an EU diplomat said ahead of the talks.