Israeli, Turkish officials set to hold fresh détente talks

Israeli and Turkish officials will meet in the next two weeks for further talks on a detente between the once close allies, Channel 2 television reported Saturday.

The report came a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Vice President Joe Biden about the reconciliation efforts.

According to a statement by Biden’s office, the two discussed “ongoing efforts to improve Israel-Turkey relations and advance energy cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean.”

The chat was a follow-up to a similar conversation the two had on the sidelines of this month’s World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland.

Meanwhile, a Turkish think tank said Saturday that officials in Ankara “have kept their own counsel” in the face of provocative remarks emanating from Israel, in order to avoid derailing the reconciliation talks.

Speaking to Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman, Suat Kınıklıoğlu of the Center for Strategic Communication said Saturday that, “Under normal conditions, those Israeli ministers’ allegations against Turkey would prompt a backlash from the Turkish side.”

Kınıklıoğlu was apparently referring to comments by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, who this week accused Turkey of buying oil from the Islamic State and allowing the jihadist group to send trained terrorists into Europe.

Relations between Ankara and Jerusalem have been frosty for nearly a decade and almost broke down entirely after the 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed 10 Turkish citizens. Despite an apology by Netanyahu in 2013, efforts to end the standoff have repeatedly failed, though in recent weeks there have been increasing signs that a rapprochement is in the offing.