During a speech delivered Wednesday to the Knesset plenum in Jerusalem, Turkish President, Amhed Necdet Sezer called on the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to renew negotiations with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Sezer offered to broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (P.A), and said that Turkey is willing to give its support to the stalled peace process in whatever form.
Also, Sezer added his country hopes that a peaceful solution, based on the Road Map Plan, will be found to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to establish peace between the Palestinian and Israeli people.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli President, Moshe Katsav, welcomed Sezer during a ceremony at his Jerusalem residence.
Knesset speaker, Dalia Itzik, welcomed Sezer before his Knesset speech and spoke of the connection between Israel and Turkey.
Israel considers Turkey as a key Muslim ally that has tried in recent years to position itself as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.
Yet, the two countries disagree on how to deal with the Hamas-led Palestinian government.
Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has criticized the European Union for cutting off aid to the Palestinian government.
The aid cutoff is threatening every aspect of the Palestinian society to collapse, especially the health and social systems.
Israel, on the other hand, called on Turkey to boycott the Palestinian government, but the Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
Hamas movement said that it cannot recognize Israel and hold peace talks with it as long as it continues its occupation to the Palestinians territories, and as long is it does not implicitly recognize the Palestinian rights of independence, and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees.
