Ankara denies reports of sevret Turkish-Israeli talks

The Foreign Ministry yesterday denied a report claiming that a senior Israeli official secretly visited Ankara and had talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan towards restoring military and intelligence collaboration with Israel. A story on the DEBKAfile website on Friday alleged that Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon met with Erdogan and Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) head Hakan Fidan to finalize an agreement to restore military and intelligence cooperation between Turkey and Israel in the eastern Mediterranean. It said the deal was worked out between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was also discussed in a telephone conversation last Tuesday between Obama and Erdogan. Quoting military sources, DEBKAfile said the deal would also give Erdogan a role in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.