TEL AVIV // Israel’s worst-ever wildfire last week may have killed dozens of people and made hundreds of others homeless, but it also appears to be serving as the unlikely trigger for fence-mending talks with Turkey.
Following some two years of deep tensions, made worse following Israel’s raid on a Turkish-flagged ship bound for Gaza last May, officials from the two countries met secretly in Geneva on Sunday to find a way to overcome the crisis in their formerly close ties.
The meeting, whose occurrence was confirmed to reporters by Turkish and Israeli foreign ministry officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, came just days after Turkey sent two aircraft to Israel to help battle a massive forest fire that killed at least 42 people.
Turkey’s help, which arrived in parallel to assistance from other countries, prompted Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, to phone his Turkish counterpart, Tayyip Erdogan, and thank him. It was the first conversation between the two men since Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists while storming their boat, the Mavi Marmara, that was aiming to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and provide its residents with aid supplies.
via Fire could spark rapprochement between Istanbul and Tel Aviv.
Leave a Reply