Kerry Pushes Mideast Peace, Turkey-Israel Ties in Istanbul
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry discussed U.S. efforts to revive the Middle East peace process with the Palestinian leader on Sunday and was to meet Turkey's prime minister for talks on getting its relations with Israel back on track.
Kerry and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who have met several times recently, talked for an hour-and-a-half to "continue the conversation that they've been having for several weeks now about how to get both sides (the Palestinians and the Israelis) back to the table," a State Department official said.
Kerry warned Wednesday that time was slipping away to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, stressing for the first time that there may only be a year or two left.
Kerry is working on a plan to try to boost the Palestinian economy as part of efforts to restore trust between the two sides.
He was to later meet Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the agenda focusing on restoring Ankara's once-close ties with Israel.
Israeli and Turkish officials meet on Monday for talks on compensation over a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, which if successful could get the two states' rocky relations back on sound footing.
A State Department official said the U.S. was "continuing to encourage" attempts at a rapprochement and that efforts needed to be made "one step at a time," starting with the compensation issue.
"In the past they had very positive and constructive relations. And that's what I think everybody hopes, including the two countries, is the pathway to the future," the official said.
A Turkish diplomatic source said: "The normalization process will obviously be discussed. Turkey wants to overcome its problems with Israel."
Once-solid ties between the Jewish state and Turkey hit an all-time low after nine Turkish nationals were killed in the May 2010 botched raid by Israeli commandos on a six-ship flotilla heading for the Gaza Strip.
After long refusing Ankara's demand for a formal apology, Israel last month finally made the gesture at the urging of U.S. President Barack Obama.
But for the full restoration of ties and re-appointment of its ambassador to Israel, Ankara insists the Jewish state pay compensation for the raid victims and lift its restrictions on Gaza.
During his visit to Istanbul, Abbas was also to meet Erdogan, who has sparked concern by announcing his intention to visit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip next month after a trip to the United States.
Abbas' West Bank-based nationalist Fatah movement, a long-time rival to the Islamist Hamas, has criticized Erdogan's Gaza trip as fostering intra-Palestinian divisions.
Kerry was in Istanbul mainly to attend talks among the 11-member core group of the pro-opposition "Friends of Syria", including the United States, European nations and Arab countries.
After more than six hours of talks that ended early Sunday, Kerry said U.S. assistance to the opposition battling President Bashar Assad would double to $250 million (190 million euros).
He said the U.S. would expand deliveries of military equipment to rebel fighters to include new types of "non-lethal supplies", but ignored opposition demands for weapons and drone strikes on Assad regime positions.
Source: Agence France Presse
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