US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday the United States found a comment by Turkey’s prime minister likening Zionism to crimes against humanity “objectionable”.

Kerry, on his first trip to a Muslim nation since taking office, met Turkish leaders for talks meant to focus on Syria’s civil war and bilateral interests from energy security to counter-terrorism.

But the comment by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan at a U.N. meeting in Vienna this week, condemned by his Israeli counterpart, the White House and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has clouded his trip.

“We not only disagree with it, we found it objectionable,” Kerry told a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, saying he raised the issue directly with Davutoglu and would do so with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Kerry said Turkey and Israel were both key U.S. allies and urged them to restore closer ties.

“Given the many challenges that the neighbourhood faces, it is essential that both Turkey and Israel find a way to take steps in order to bring about or to rekindle their historic cooperation,” Kerry said.

“I think that’s possible but obviously we have to get beyond the kind of rhetoric that we’ve just seen recently.”

Washington needs all the allies it can get as it navigates the political currents of the Middle East, and sees Turkey as the key player in supporting Syria’s opposition and planning for the era after President Bashar al-Assad.

But the collapse of Ankara’s ties with Israel have undermined U.S. hopes that Turkey could play a role as a broker in the broader region.

Erdogan told the U.N. Alliance of Civilizations meeting in Vienna on Wednesday: “Just as with Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it has become necessary to view Islamophobia as a crime against humanity.”

Erdogan’s caustic rhetoric on Israel has in the past won applause from conservative supporters at home but raised increasing concern among Western allies.

US finds Erdogan comments on Zionism “particularly offensive”

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s reported comment equating Zionism with crimes against humanity is “particularly offensive” and has a “corrosive effect” on U.S.-Turkish relations, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

“This was particularly offensive, frankly, to call Zionism a crime against humanity,” the senior U.S. official told reporters as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew to Ankara. “It does have a corrosive effect (on relations).”

“I am sure the secretary will be very clear about how dismayed we were to hear it,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added.

Voice of Russia, Reuters

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_03_01/Turkish-PMs-remark-on-Zionism-is-objectionable-Kerry/