An Israeli Cabinet minister met with Turkey’s foreign minister in Brussels to improve relations between the two countries, according to Israeli and Turkish reports.
The meeting Wednesday between Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, which was supposed to be secret, was first disclosed in a report Wednesday night by Israel’s Channel 2. Senior Israeli government officials reportedly confirmed the Channel 2 report and said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak had approved the meeting, The content of the meeting remains shrouded in secrecy,
Each country has reportedly said the other initiated the meeting.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was reportedly angry that he was not informed of plans for the meeting.
“The foreign minister takes a grim view of the fact that the ministry was not informed,” a statement issued by the ministry said, according to Haaretz. “It is a breach of all the proper procedures and a serious blow to the trust between the foreign minister and prime minister. Lieberman intends to sort this out thoroughly.”
A Netanyahu aide met with Lieberman Thursday morning to explain the breakdown in communications and to apologize, Ynet reported.
Turkey, Israel’s most important ally in the Muslim world, withdrew its ambassador to Israel and cancelled several planned joint military exercises following Israel’s interception on May 31 of a Gaza-bound flotilla, which ended in the deaths of nine passengers; relations between the two countries has been deteriorating since the month-long Gaza war in 2008-09.
Turkey has demanded that Israel apologize for its raid on the flotilla and pay compensation to the families of the dead, all Turkish citizens.
