Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said that Ankara will only resume mediating Israel-Syria negotiations when Israel shows a real desire for peace, the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Hayat reported Sunday.
Turkey brokered indirect peace talks between the two enemy states last year, although their future has been unclear as Israel prepares to elect a new government that may break then off.
The paper also quoted Erdogan as saying that harsh comments he made during the recent hostilities in Gaza were not against Israel but merely expressed a principled position in opposition to the killing of civilians.
The Turkish prime minister branded Israel's 22-day offensive against Hamas as "a crime against humanity," and blamed a "Jewish-backed media" for falsely suggesting that Hamas uses civilians as human shields in Gaza.
Al-Hayat further quoted Erdogan as saying that while Hamas may have made a mistake in continuing to launch cross-border rocket attacks on Israel, Israel also did not fulfill its commitments by keeping its border crossings with Gaza closed.
