Part 1: Exclusive interview w/ Turkey PM

Part 1 of Christiane Amanpour's exclusive interview with Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan.

Part 2: Exclusive interview w/ Turkey PM

Part 2 of Christiane Amanpour's exclusive interview with Turkey's Prime Minister Erdogan.

See more of Christiane Amanpour's interview with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday at 2100 CET, 2300 CET, 1700 HKT and 2200 HKT on CNN International's "Amanpour" program or here at Amanpour.com

(CNN) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the United States is "lacking of initiative" on Syria and suggested that could be because of the upcoming U.S. election.

During a wide-ranging interview in Istanbul with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Erdogan discussed the 18-month crisis in Syria and touched on a number of other topics, including Iran's suspected nuclear program.

"Right now, there are certain things being expected from the United States. The United States had not yet catered to those expectations," the prime minister said when asked whether he was surprised the United States is not offering anything but "nonlethal support" to the opposition.

"Maybe it's because of the elections - maybe it's because of the pre-election situation in the States. Might be the root cause of the lacking of initiative. Nobody has spoken to us about their reasons, and they are not obliged to state anything. We are very thankful and pleased they have stated that they're against this regime," he said through a translator.  FULL POST