Israel And Turkey Restore Ties After Years Of Gap
MEP: Israel and Turkey have announced the formal resumption of full diplomatic relations after a six-year fissure when an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla left eight Turks and an American citizen of Turkish origin dead, officials said Monday.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the two countries would exchange ambassadors soon.
The reconciliation has potentially wide-reaching security and economic ramifications in the region. Turkey and Israel once shared close military cooperation, and they have common worries over Daesh (ISIS/ISIL) terrorist group and other war-driven instability in Syria, which borders Turkey and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The rapprochement agreement was initialed by the negotiating teams on Sunday night. For the first time since the negotiations began, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent his personal adviser and closest confidante, Ibrahim Kalin, to the final round of talks in Rome, to personally oversee the final stage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it opened the way for possible Israeli gas supplies to Europe via Turkey.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the deal in Rome summit, saying, “We are obviously pleased in the administration. This is a step we wanted to see happen.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that the deal, set to be signed Tuesday, includes a $20 million compensation fund for Turkish families, an eventual return of ambassadors and initial talks on a possible natural gas pipeline.
As Turkish officials hailed the deal as a diplomatic victory, rivals of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel from the left and right called him to task.
Gideon Saar, a former minister from Mr. Netanyahu’s conservative Likud Party, described the compensation as “a national humiliation.” Isaac Herzog, the leader of the center-left Zionist Union, called it “incomprehensible,” and criticized what he called the “indifference and disregard” shown toward the families of those missing in Gaza.
In addition to the compensation, the agreement will allow Turkey to deliver humanitarian aid, build a 200-bed hospital, a housing project and a desalination plant in Gaza, under the condition that materials go through the Israeli port of Ashdod first.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said that the Israeli embargo on Gaza has been “largely lifted” as part of the reconciliation deal between Israel and Turkey.
