Top officials from Turkey and Israel have begun new closed-door talks on a deal to normalize ties more than half a decade after relations were downgraded, a report said Thursday.
Delegations led by powerful Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and Joseph Ciechanover, an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and National Security Advisor Jacob Nagel started talks in Geneva late on Wednesday, the Turkish NTV television channel reported.
NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two parties fell out in 2010 over the deadly storming by occupation commandos of a Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, bound for Gaza.
Turkey has repeatedly made clear three conditions for a normalization: the lifting of the Gaza blockade, compensation for the Mavi Marmara victims and an apology for the incident.
The occupation entity has already apologized and negotiations appear to have made progress on compensation, leaving the blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip the main hurdle.
Source: AFP -NEWZ.GR
11/2/16
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Talks between Turkey and Israel to mend fences are going well but a deal has not yet been reached in efforts to improve relations and increase energy cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s ruling AK Party spokesman said...
ReplyDelete“We have information that the talks are going well but unless we see practical implications of the talks, we cannot say it’s a done deal,” Omer Celik told reporters in Ankara.
Turkey was once Israel’s closest regional ally but ties collapsed in 2010 over the killing by Israeli marines of 10 Turkish pro-Palestinian activists who tried to breach the Gaza blockade.
Though Israel accused the Islamist-rooted AK Party of siding with Palestinian Hamas militants, Israeli and Turkish leaders reconciled in a 2013 phone conversation arranged by U.S. President Barack Obama.
A formal restoration of relations has proven elusive, however. Diplomats say Turkey wants an end to the Gaza blockade that Israel deems necessary for preventing Palestinian arms-smuggling, while Israel wants Ankara to disengage from Hamas.....REUTERS