Israel and Turkey have reached agreement on normalising diplomatic ties that broke down in 2010 when 10 Turkish activists were killed after Israeli naval commandos raided the MV Mavi Marmara ship, part of an worldwide flotilla trying to break Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza.
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At the meeting, the official said, negotiators agreed that Israel would establish a special fund to compensate families of the victims killed in the 2010 raid on the MV Mavi Marmara.
“Investors are pricing in that a potential deal between Israel and Turkey might include cooperation in the energy sector”, Kenan Cosguner, an analyst at TEB Investment in Istanbul, said by phone on Friday.
The document which was distributed worldwide to Israeli diplomats states that Israel has “valid property claims and a Jewish affinity” to the region of the West Bank and Hebron which goes back thousands of years.
“We have not reached an agreement yet”, the official said on December 17, responding to a question on reports that the two countries have reached a preliminary deal. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media about the diplomatic talks.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday hinted that a warming of ties was on the cards, saying that an improvement in relations between the two countries would benefit the region as a whole.
According to the official, incoming Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and Joseph Ciechanover, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s point-man for Turkish reconciliation, made up the Israeli team, with Turkish foreign ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu representing Ankara. Turkey will drop allclaims against Israel on the matter.
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“We hope that there would be more positive statements from Netanyahu over the Palestine issue, Gaza issue and the resolution in the Middle East”, Arinc told the channel, the first high-ranking Turkish official to speak on Israeli TV since the collapse of relations. “Between 8 bcm to 10 bcm of gas would initially be transferred via a pipeline to Turkey’s Mersin port”, the source told Today’s Zaman. The ship was accompanying a convoy that sought to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, which remains under a blockade.
