Turkish PM slams Olmert's 'inconsistency'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly expressed his doubts regarding Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's credibility Wednesday, calling his statements "inconsistent."

Erdogan criticized Olmert's decision not to brief him on the impending Israeli offensive in Gaza in late December, despite the fact that the two met just days before.

"Which part of his remarks will you believe in?" he said at a joint press conference with his Croatian counterpart, Ivo Sanader, in Ankara. "All the facts are laid bare. First, you want a country (Turkey) to act as mediator and then you will visit this country and discuss the fifth round of (indirect talks between Syria and Israel).

"More interestingly, you say you did not know about it (the timing of the Gaza offensive) initially. Then you say ’why should I inform you of it. These (statements) create problem of confidence regarding the future. Leaders cannot create a problem of confidence. Politics is not an institution that produces distrust. We’ve never had a tendency to put a dent in international peace," Erdogan added.

Olmert, who spoke at the Conference of Presidents in Jerusalem Wednesday, addressed Erdogan's criticism, saying: "I cannot think of any society in the world which has been subjected to such a scope of terror attacks for so long and had demonstrated the same kind of restraint that we have.

"The time to take action came on the same week when I visited the prime minister of Turkey and he was very unhappy about the fact that I met with him on Monday and did not tell him we were going to strike on Saturday.

"I eventually sent him a communiqué," Olmert continued. "There were two reasons why I didn’t tell him. First – I didn’t know we were going to attack. How could I? On Tuesday and Wednesday they (Hamas) fired between 50 and 70 rockets on our southern cities a day; and it was then that we felt that we had no other choice but to respond.

"To be completely frank, I didn’t call the president of the United States – my dear friend George Bush – either, to tell him we were going to strike, nor did I call (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy, (UK Prime Minister) Gordon Brown or (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel. Why should report Israel's military plans to any other PM?

"I don’t think I should have done that and I do not care for the sentiment expressed by the Turkish prime minister. We have a good relationship with Turkey and we hope to maintain it. We hope the Turkish prime minister realizes that there are some limits which sometimes keep state leaders from sharing sensitive top secrets."