BICOM

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has appointed a new ambassador to Turkey, finalising the restoration of full diplomatic relations following their downgrading in 2011.

The appointment of Eitan Na’eh finalises the reconciliation deal which was agreed between the two countries in June this year.

Na’eh is a veteran diplomat, who served in Ankara in 1993 as second and then first secretary. He is an expert on Turkish affairs and has served as Deputy Ambassador in London since 2013. He is expected to arrive in Israel by the end of November.

In 2010, the previously warm relationship between Israel and Turkey deteriorated after the deaths of ten Turkish citizens on the Gaza-bound protest ship, the Mavi Marmara. In 2016, an understanding was reached whereby Israel agreed to pay compensation to the families and to allow Turkish aid and infrastructure projects in the Gaza Strip.

In return, Turkey committed that it would not allow itself to be used as a base for terror groups such as Hamas and to extended bilateral relations with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described good relations with Turkey as being of strategic importance for security, regional stability and for the Israeli economy.

This morning Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed that Kemal Okem, the former political advisor to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, would represent Ankara in Tel Aviv.

Another element of the 2016 agreement was improved economic ties between Israel and Turkey. Last week Yuval Steinitz, the Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources, announced that teams from both countries had began discussions on the laying of a gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey.

Israel has also conducted talks with Egypt on this subject, and has reached an agreement in principle with the backing of the EU Directorate-General for Energy to lay a pipeline to supply via Cyprus and Greece to Europe. A feasibility study for the pipeline returned positive results, but the progress of the project will depend first on the discovery of significant additional natural gas stores.