John Kerry to urge Turkey to patch up relations with Israel after Zionism row

John Kerry to urge Turkey to patch up relations with Israel after Zionism row

Trip could be overshadowed by row over Turkish prime minister’s comments that Zionism was a crime against humanity

Staff and Reuters in Ankara

guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 March 2013 14.35 GMT

US secretary of state John Kerry, left, meets with Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu at Ankara Palas. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AFP/Getty Images

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, will urge the Turkish prime minister to restore the country’s “frozen” relationship with Israel on Friday, on his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office.

The collapse of ties between the two countries have undermined US

hopes that Turkey could play a role as a broker in the broader region – Washington sees Turkey as the key player in supporting Syria’s opposition and planning for the era after President Bashar al-Assad.

But the trip could be overshadowed by a row over comments made by the Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, earlier this week, when he described Zionism as a crime against humanity.

Kerry is meeting Turkish leaders in talks meant to focus on Syria’s civil war and bilateral interests from energy security to counter-terrorism.

But Erdogan’s comment at a UN meeting in Vienna this week, condemned by his Israeli counterpart, the White House and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, has clouded his trip.

“This was particularly offensive, frankly, to call Zionism a crime against humanity … It does have a corrosive effect [on relations],” a senior US official told reporters as Kerry flew to Ankara.

“I am sure the secretary will be very clear about how dismayed we were to hear it,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

“To state the obvious, it complicates our ability to do all of the things that we want to do together when we have such a profound disagreement about such an important thing.”

Kerry is expected to urge Turkey to attempt to restore relations with Israel. “The Turkey-Israel relationship is frozen,” the US official said. “We want to see a normalization … not just for the sake of the two countries but for the sake of the region and, frankly, for the symbolism,” he said.

“Not that long ago [you] had these two countries demonstrating that a majority Muslim country could have very positive and strong relations with the Jewish state and that was a sign for the region [of what was] possible.”

Erdogan told the UN Alliance of Civilizations meeting in Vienna on Wednesday: “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”

The head of Europe’s main rabbinical group condemned his words as a “hateful attack” on Jews. Ties between Israel and mostly Muslim Turkey have been frosty since 2010, when Israeli marines killed nine Turks in fighting aboard a Palestinian aid ship that tried to breach Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.

In recent weeks, there has been a run of reports in the Turkish and Israeli media about efforts to repair relations, including a senior diplomatic meeting last month in Rome and military equipment transfers.

The reports have not been confirmed by either government.

Officials said Syria would top the agenda when Kerry meets Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, building on the discussions in Rome between 11 mostly European and Arab nations within the “Friends of Syria” group.

After the Rome meeting, Kerry said on Thursday the United States would for the first time give non-lethal aid to the rebels and more than double support to the civilian opposition, although Western powers stopped short of pledging arms.

“We need to continue the discussion which took place in Rome … in terms of the main goals there is no daylight between us and the Americans,” a senior Turkish official said.

“A broad agreement was reached on supporting the opposition. Now our sides need to sit down and really flesh out what we can do to support them in order to change the balance on the ground,” he said.

Turkey has been one of Assad’s fiercest critics, hosting a Nato Patriot missile defence system, including two US batteries, to protect against a spillover of violence and leading calls for international intervention.

It has spent more than $600m sheltering refugees from the conflict that began almost two years ago, housing some 180,000 in camps near the border and tens of thousands more who are staying with relatives or in private accommodation.

Washington has given $385m in humanitarian aid for Syria but US president Barack Obama has so far refused to give arms, arguing it is difficult to prevent them from falling into the hands of militants who could use them on Western targets.

Turkey, too, has been reluctant to provide weapons, fearing direct intervention could cause the conflict to spill across its borders.

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