United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that good relations between Turkey Israel are important for future peace in the region, and urged both sides to improve ties and accept the
recommendations of a UN report into the deaths of nine Turkish activists when IDF soldiers entered a Gaza-bound ship.
Relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated since the UN report was made public on Thursday. Turkey has
expelled Israel's ambassador and frozen military cooperation after the report failed to prompt an apology from Israel.
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Ban said strong ties between Turkey and Israel, which both share a border with Syria, were important for the Middle East and the future of the Middle East peace process.
"Both countries are very important countries in the region. Their improved relationship, normal relationship, will be very important in addressing all the situations in the Middle East, including the Middle East peace process," Ban said.
The UN chief declined personal comments on the UN report, which was written by a panel headed by former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer.
Ban's comments echoed a statement out of the US State Department on Friday, when spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the US regretted the ongoing diplomatic row
between Turkey and Israel, two of the US's strongest allies in the region.
"We regret that prior
to the publication of the [Palmer] report they were unable to reach agreement on
steps that might have helped overcome their differences," US State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding that the US continues to hope
that the governments in Ankara and Jerusalem will work for a
complete resolution and fix their "longstanding relationship."
Earlier
Friday, US Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) was more critical of Turkey,
calling the government in Ankara hypocritical for its decision to expel
Israel's ambassador to Ankara while Syria's envoy to Turkey remains in
place.
Turkish
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Friday said that Israel's
diplomatic presence in Turkey was being cut to second secretary level,
effectively expelling Israeli diplomats after
details emerged of the Palmer Report which dealt with the IDF raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship.
"Turkey should be ashamed of itself," Engel, a senior member of the US
House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Committee said in a
statement. "In an almost unbelievable act of hypocrisy, the Syrian
ambassador sits comfortably in Ankara, while the Assad regime kills more
than 2000 of its own people, but Turkey has expelled the Israeli
Ambassador for Israel’s proper enforcement of a legally-established
blockade. Rather than bashing the only real democracy in the Middle
East, Turkey should focus on its own problems, such as ending its
occupation of Cyprus once and for all," he stated.
Engel also
commented on the UN report on the raid of the Mavi Marmara: “The Palmer
Commission report accurately confirmed that Israel acted within its
rights in establishing a blockade of Gaza, and enforcing it. I think
the report went too far, however, when it said Israel used ‘excessive’
force. Only after the Israelis faced serious, life-threatening violence
did they act legally in self defense. I can see nothing wrong with
that.”