Turkey's Erdogan briefs Hamas leader on Ankara's Israel 'deal'

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on Saturday, reportedly to discuss a putative deal to restore ties between Turkey and Israel.

MENA

3 min read

The New Arab

20 December, 2015

For Israel, limiting Hamas activity in Turkey has been key [Anadolu/Getty]

The leader of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas Khaled Meshaal arrived in a surprise visit to Istanbul on Saturday, where he met with Turkish Islamist President Tayyip Erdogan.

Meshaal, who is based in Qatar, was briefed by the Turkish president on the latest developments in the region, according to sources from Erdogan's office, which did not give further details.

This comes a day after Israel and Turkey said they were close to patching up a five-year political rift.

Israeli officials said late on Thursday that a deal with Turkey was struck to normalise ties following high-level bilateral talks in Switzerland.

A major aspect of the putative deal would be an agreement to lay down a natural gas pipeline to Turkey and the sale of Israeli-produced natural gas to the country.

Turkey currently buys a third of its natural gas from Russia, but bilateral ties have soured since Turkey shot down a Russian jet on November 24.

So far, Hamas has not issued a reaction to the reports detailing the new Israeli-Turkish understandings.

The last meeting between Erdogan and the Hamas leader took place four months ago, on August 13.

Turkish officials said a final agreement was yet to be sealed, but that given the progress it would not be too long.

Israel's once-strong ties to Turkey soured in 2010 when Israeli commandoes killed 10 Turkish activists when storming the Mavi Marmara, a ship in a the Freedom Flotilla seeking to break an Israeli naval blockade of the Palestinian territory of Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

Turkey had demanded Israel apologise over the assault, pay compensation and lift the Gaza blockade.

For Israel, limiting Hamas activity in Turkey has been key.

Under the preliminary deal between the two countries, Saleh al-Aruori, a senior leader in the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas who has been living in Turkey, would be barred from the country, Israeli officials had claimed.

Deal 'harms both Turks and Palestinians'

The Turkish charity IHH, which was a key part of the Freedom Flotilla, has condemned reports of the Turkish-Israeli deal on its Twitter account, saying it would harm both the Turkish and Palestinian peoples.

IHH said it would continue to work to end the blockade on Gaza and would not withdraw legal cases filed against Israeli officials.

Commenting on reports indicating Israel would pay $20 million to Turkey in compensation, IHH said the figure should be no less than $1 billion.

IHH stressed that the Freedom Flotilla was not a Turkish cause but the cause of 37 nations whose citizens were on board the ships assaulted by Israel.

IHH also criticised the inclusion of natural gas in negotiations, saying this violates the Palestinian right to gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.