SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The United States on Tuesday “strongly condemns” recent comments by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the Jewish people as anti-Semitic, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
“We urge President Erdogan and other Turkish leaders to refrain from incendiary remarks, which could incite further violence,” Price said in a statement, according to Reuters.
“Anti-Semitic language has no place anywhere,” he said.
Price did not specify which Erdogan remarks the United States considered anti-Semitic.
Erdogan, a vocal defender of the Palestinians, has criticized Israel for conducting air strikes on Gaza and called it a “terror state” after Israeli police fired rubber bullets at rock-throwing Palestinians in Jerusalem.
“They are murderers, to the point that they kill children who are five or six years old. They only are satisfied by sucking their blood,” AFP quoted Erdogan as saying.
He has championed the Palestinian cause during his 18-year rule even though Turkey remains one of the few Muslim-majority nations with relations with Israel.
The Turkish president also lashed out at his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden for his diplomatic support to Israel, saying the U.S. leaders has “bloody hands”, according to AFP.
