An Israeli official said on Thursday that a preliminary agreement had been reached that foresees the full restoration of diplomatic links.
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As part of the agreement Israel will establish a compensation fund for the nine Turkish civilians killed when the Israeli navy boarded the Marmara, which was trying to run the Gaza blockade. In the aftermath of the raid, Turkey became one of the strongest critics of Israeli actions in Gaza.
Turkey withdrew its ambassador to Israel after the flotilla incident and refused to resume normal diplomatic ties with the Jewish state without an apology and compensation for the victims’ families.
The raid on the flotilla raised tensions between Israel and Turkey, which recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
Among those attending the talks in Zurich, an official at the Prime Minister’s Office said, were National Security Council chief Yossi Cohen (the incoming head of the Mossad spy agency), former Foreign Ministry director Joseph Ciechanover (who serves as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s point man on Israeli-Turkish relations), and a Turkish under-secretary of foreign affairs. Turkey would then drop all claims against Israel.
Turkey also agreed to prevent Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri from operating within the country, according to the statement from Israeli officials.
Necdet Pamir, an expert on energy in Bilkent University in Ankara, says Israeli natural gas could be an alternative to Turkey’s “extreme dependency” on Russian gas. A final deal has yet to take shape, he said.
The crisis in relations between the two countries was exacerbated by the IDF’s 2010 raid on the Mavi Marmara.
Moreover, work on a gas pipeline is scheduled to bring the product from Turkey to Europe through Israel. The IDF insisted that the civilians attacked the Israeli soldiers with metal bars and other weapons.
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Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled a possible warming of relations with Israel, saying in published comments that the entire region would benefit from the normalization of ties.
