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WEEKLY
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| Tel Aviv seeks better ties with Ankara |
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
ISTANBUL: Israel wants to improve and strengthen ties with key Muslim ally Turkey that have soured over the Jewish state’s offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israel’s trade minister said on Monday. Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the first Israeli minister to visit Turkey since relations hit a low last winter, also said Turkey can help “solve problems in the Middle East.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday that Turkey’s scathing criticism of the Jewish state had disqualified it as a mediator of talks between Israel and Syria.
Muslim but secular Turkey has long been Israel’s closest ally in the Muslim world and mediated months of indirect talks between Israel and Syria last year.
But ties deteriorated steeply after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who heads an Islamic-oriented government, strongly criticised Israel’s offensive in Gaza and complained of the heavy Palestinian death toll. The Turkish-mediated indirect talks between Syria and Israel were put on hold over the Gaza offensive.
Ben-Eliezer told a group of Turkish business representatives that Israel “wants to continue and strengthen relations, we want to clean the cloudy situation.”
“As within families there are ups and downs,” he said. “But the basis of the relationship is strong.” Later, Ben-Eliezer told Turkish reporters Turkey “can play a very important role in all problems in the Middle East with the Palestinians and the Syrians.”
He acknowledged there was a difference of opinion on Turkey’s role as a mediator within Israel, saying Lieberman respects Turkey but believes that the country “is not yet ready to be a mediator in the conflict in the Middle East.”
The state-run Anatolia news agency also quoted Ben-Eliezer assaying Turkey could help “to put things back on track” between Israel and Syria.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
