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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: January 11, 2006 |
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested Tuesday that Ariel Sharon's Kadima party would be able carry on with the Israeli leader's work, should he not be able to return to politics.
Sharon, 77, suffered a massive stroke last Wednesday and underwent surgery three times.
"There are hospital statements which say that he may no longer be able to continue with politics... It would not be right for us ... to comment on that."
"But there is an established party there and the party has a deputy head. There is Shimon Peres. And they are preparing the party for elections," Erdogan said during a joint press conference with his Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi. Peres, the Labor Party elder statesman and Nobel Peace Prize laureate abandoned his party to join Sharon in Kadima.
"If a party exists because of its personalities that party is weak. But if it exists because of its ideals then it is strong. That's how we have to look at it," he said.
Koizumi wished Sharon a speedy recovery and said: "The political future of Israel is something that the Israeli people will decide."
Turkey is one of the only Muslim countries to have close ties with Israel. But the Israeli leader is unpopular in the country where many Turks sympathize with the Palestinians. |
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