Ya’alon excoriates Turkey for terrorism ‘support’

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon accuses Turkey of “supporting” terrorism and assisting the Islamic State group by buying oil from it and allowing its fighters unmolested passage to and from Europe.

IS – he says during a meeting with his Greek counterpart, Panos Kammenos, in Athens – “enjoyed Turkish money for oil for a very, very long period of time.”

He also accuses Turkey, with which Greece has had problematic relations over the decades, of “allowing jihadis to move to Europe from Syria and Iraq and back home as part of the [Islamic State] terror infrastructure in Europe.”

Yet, he says, “hopefully” Turkey and Israel can set aside their differences and repair their relations, and Ankara “will join the countries that fight terrorism and not those that generate or support it.”

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and his Greek counterpart, Panos Kammenos, in Athens on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)