BEIRUT, LEBANON (4:00 P.M.) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his country wants to establish better relations with Israel, and that talks at the intelligence level are continuing between the two sides.
The state-owned Anadolu Agency quoted Erdogan as saying that his country’s relationship with Israel at the intelligence level continues and has not stopped, and Turkey is facing some difficulties with the figures at the top of the pyramid.
“His (Netanuahu) country has problems with people at the highest levels … if there were no issues at the highest levels, our relations would have been completely different, and Israel’s policies on Palestine are unacceptable,” the Turkish president said at a press conference in Istanbul, after Friday prayers .
Erdogan continued: “We cannot accept Israel’s policy toward Palestine, and this is the point of our disagreement with it, which is based on our concept of justice and the territorial integrity of states.”
He added: “Otherwise, we hope to move our relations with them to a better level.”
It is noteworthy to mention that Turkish-Israeli relations are in a state of high tension, as they exchanged expulsion of ambassadors in 2018, despite the strength of commercial relations between them.