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Turkey offers to act as intermediary between Israel and Palestinians |
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Written by AP
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Saturday, 28 January 2006 10:25 |
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Turkey's prime minister says his country is willing to be "some sort of intermediary" between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Turkish leader (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) is also urging the Hamas militant group that won control of the Palestinian government this week to recognize Israel. He says Hamas should also give up its weapons and tone-down its militant views.
In turn, he says Israel has to accept the vote and the new Hamas role in Palestinian government.
Israel considers Hamas a terrorist group and says it won't deal with any government that includes Hamas members.
The Turkish leader says, "Both sides must accept as a reality the existence of the state of Israel as well as a Palestinian state."
He says the Organization of Islamic Conference may also take "an important role" in relations between the peoples.
The comments came at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.
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