Earlier, a Turkish official told Daily Sabah that Israel and Turkey could be two weeks away from ending crisis; the report did not say whether Israel’s demand to shut Hamas HQ in Istanbul has been resolved.
A spokesperson for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that reconciliation with Israel cannot be reached unless the blockade on Gaza is lifted. Ibrahim Kalin said at a press conference that the Turkish demand needs to be addressed first.
The remarks came after report published on Monday, quoting a senior Turkish official, said that Israel and Turkey could be two weeks away from resolving the crisis and reaching a reconciliation agreement.
A Turkish official privy to the negotiations between Israel and Turkey told the Daily Sabah that one of the main issues still in dispute is Israel’s response to the Turkish demand to allow it to send a power generator ship to the Gaza coast to supply electricity to the enclave.
“Turkey and Israel do not agree 100 percent,” the official was quoted as saying. “There are still certain hurdles we must overcome.”
The official said that Israel and Turkey have agreed that in the next round of negotiations, which will take place in the coming weeks, the sides will find solutions to the remaining issues and will publicly announce the end of the crisis that erupted following the takeover of the Turkish flotilla to Gaza, in May, 2010.
Israel did not outright reject the Turkish request to send a power generator ship to Gaza, but stressed that it must consider it before giving a final answer, the Turkish official noted. Israel, he said, is concerned that agreeing to the Turkish request would set a precedent.
According to the official, the next meeting will be the final round of negotiations in which Israel will respond to the Turkish request.
“It is extremely unlikely for the final meeting to not produce any results,” he reportedly said. “Neither side wants this to continue for much longer. If Israel agrees to Turkey sending a power ship to the Eastern Mediterranean, respective ambassadors will start serving in Ankara and Tel Aviv in no time.”
However, a senior Israeli official denied the Turkish official’s assertion. “The issue of sending power-generating ships never came up during the last rounds of negotiations,” he said.
According to the Turkish official, Ankara has withdrew most of its demands concerning Gaza and settled for an Israeli commitment to ease the blockade and allow humanitarian aid into the Strip, which are already in place today.
The official however did not specify whether the dispute over the Hamas headquarters in Istanbul was resolved. Israel demands that Turkey shut down the Hamas offices and prohibit Hamas from conducting military activities in Turkey. Ahead of the last round of negotiations, which were held on Thursday, this was the main point of contention between the sides.
@ Keli-A:
I was really worried when I didn’t see your posts anymore. Glad you used the same avatar so could sigh in relief 🙂
Pessah Kasher Vesameach, dear brother 🙂
Erdogan has boasted that he is proud of boldly blackmailing EU leaders into paying him protection money.
Erdogan’s threats were almost criminally sinister: “… the EU will be confronted with more than a dead boy on the shores of Turkey. There will be 10,000 or 15,000. How will you deal with that?”
According to the agreement, 80 million Turkish citizens will have visa-free access to the European Union.
The nightmare scenario for a desperate EU is that no matter how much it bows to extortionist demands from Turkey, the migrant crisis will continue to grow. Even if Turkey closes down all migrant routes from Turkey into Europe, refugees could take new routes through North Africa or the Caucasus.
Meanwhile, 800,000 migrants are currently on Libyan territory waiting to cross the Mediterranean, according to French Defense Minister Jean-Yves le Drian
Rusian sanctions against Turkey are having an effect and Putin’s military threats no less.
BB under much pressure by gas oligarchs to sell Turkey our gas… Israeli Tourism has mostly dried up and our military sales as well…. Yet though relations with Turkey rocky as they are have seen bilateral trade increase every year…
Trade between Israel and Turkey booming
Despite political tensions between two countries, trade ‘more than doubled in the past five years’, amounting to $5.6 billion. Turkey is Israel’s 7th or 8th largest trading partner. Israel exports chemicals like potash to Turkey, and imports manufactured goods and food.
Turkey’s economy sees fallout from terrorism, Russian sanctions
@ Avigail:
Eric R wants to nuke em all!
😀 (Yamit82)
@ Eric R.:
I came here to post exactly that lol!
Tell Erdogan to go f**k himself.