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U.S. LAWMAKERS RAP TURKEY FOR ITS STANCE ON ISRAEL
Reuters
June 17 2010
(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers warned Turkey on Wednesday that its ties
with Washington would suffer if it continued on what they considered
an anti-Israel path.
"There will be a cost if Turkey stays on its present heading of
growing closer to Iran and more antagonistic to the state of Israel,"
Representative Mike Pence, the No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House of
Representatives, said.
At a news conference, Republicans and Democrats denounced NATO ally
Turkey for supporting an aid convoy of ships that recently tried to
run the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The lawmakers also criticized Turkey's opposition to a recent U.N.
Security Council resolution extending punitive sanctions on Iran for
its secretive nuclear program. The U.N. resolution was strongly backed
by Washington, which suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic bombs.
Democratic Representative Eliot Engel called Turkey's actions
"disgraceful," adding that although Ankara was a member of NATO,
it had stopped looking westward.
As for the cost Turkey might pay for its stance, Pence said he was
ready to reevaluate his past reluctance to support a congressional
resolution denouncing as genocide the World War I-era killings of
Armenians by Ottoman forces.
The largely symbolic resolution passed a House committee in March,
but amid protests from Ankara, the House Democratic leadership never
brought it to the chamber's floor for a vote.
The lawmakers said on Wednesday that 126 members of the House of
Representatives had signed a letter urging President Obama to oppose
international condemnation of Israel over its role in seizing the
aid ships last month and forcing them to dock in Israeli ports.
Nine people were killed aboard one vessel, the Turkish-registered Mavi
Mara, provoking an international outcry. Israel says its commandos
acted in self-defense.
One pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, J Street, took a different
view, suggesting some lawmakers' statements about the Gaza flotilla
were "drafted primarily for domestic political consumption" instead
of advancing Middle East peace.
The group's president Jeremy Ben-Ami urged U.S. lawmakers to express
"more nuanced views of the situation that might emphasize the urgency
of American leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through
two states."
From: A. Papazian
Reuters
June 17 2010
(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers warned Turkey on Wednesday that its ties
with Washington would suffer if it continued on what they considered
an anti-Israel path.
"There will be a cost if Turkey stays on its present heading of
growing closer to Iran and more antagonistic to the state of Israel,"
Representative Mike Pence, the No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House of
Representatives, said.
At a news conference, Republicans and Democrats denounced NATO ally
Turkey for supporting an aid convoy of ships that recently tried to
run the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The lawmakers also criticized Turkey's opposition to a recent U.N.
Security Council resolution extending punitive sanctions on Iran for
its secretive nuclear program. The U.N. resolution was strongly backed
by Washington, which suspects Iran of trying to develop atomic bombs.
Democratic Representative Eliot Engel called Turkey's actions
"disgraceful," adding that although Ankara was a member of NATO,
it had stopped looking westward.
As for the cost Turkey might pay for its stance, Pence said he was
ready to reevaluate his past reluctance to support a congressional
resolution denouncing as genocide the World War I-era killings of
Armenians by Ottoman forces.
The largely symbolic resolution passed a House committee in March,
but amid protests from Ankara, the House Democratic leadership never
brought it to the chamber's floor for a vote.
The lawmakers said on Wednesday that 126 members of the House of
Representatives had signed a letter urging President Obama to oppose
international condemnation of Israel over its role in seizing the
aid ships last month and forcing them to dock in Israeli ports.
Nine people were killed aboard one vessel, the Turkish-registered Mavi
Mara, provoking an international outcry. Israel says its commandos
acted in self-defense.
One pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, J Street, took a different
view, suggesting some lawmakers' statements about the Gaza flotilla
were "drafted primarily for domestic political consumption" instead
of advancing Middle East peace.
The group's president Jeremy Ben-Ami urged U.S. lawmakers to express
"more nuanced views of the situation that might emphasize the urgency
of American leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through
two states."
From: A. Papazian