Turkish minister set for historic meeting in Israel
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will hold talks in Israel today as the countries seek to improve relations after more than 10 years of tension.
He is the first foreign minister from his country to visit Israel in 15 years.
He held talks with Palestinian officials yesterday and will meet Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid today.
The ministers are expected to discuss the return of ambassadors to their countries for the first time since 2018, Bloomberg reported.
Turkey has taken steps to reset its ties with the Arab world and Israel in recent months as Ankara looks to boost the economy and bolster support for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before elections next year.
Relations between Turkey and Israel began to deteriorate in 2010 when a Turkish flotilla bound for Gaza was raided by Israeli forces, resulting in the deaths of 10 people.
Ankara has been critical of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians, while Israel has accused Turkey of supporting Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza.
Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador to Ankara in 2018 and recalled its envoys from Israel and the US.
The move came after Israeli soldiers killed about 60 Palestinians who were protesting against a plan by the US to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem.
While the Turkish ambassador to the US returned to Washington about two weeks after the incident, Turkey and Israel have so far only conducted diplomacy at the level of charges d’affaires.
As relations between them improved, Turkey has shown it wants to revive negotiations over a planned pipeline that would carry natural gas from the Eastern Mediterranean through Turkey and into Europe.
Nations including Egypt, Cyprus, Greece and Israel are co-operating to extract and move gas discovered in the region.
But Turkey has been left out in the cold owing to its exploration activities in contested waters in the Eastern Mediterranean, including sending a research vessel to the area in 2020.