Davutoglu meets with Rasmussen

As a part of his contacts during the 68th Session of the United Nations Security Council, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Wednesday in New York. Davutoglu and Rasmussen reportedly focused on the NATO-EU cooperation, Cyprus issue, Syria and other developments in the Middle East. Touching upon also the Turkish-Israeli relations, Davutoglu said there has been "some progress" in improving Turkish-Israeli relations but Israel has not yet fulfilled all conditions for normalizing ties. Amid the highly busy agenda of the Turkish FM, there was also the International Contact Group for aid to Palestine meeting where Davutoglu cited that Turkey is ready to give every support to strengthen Palestine's state structure, as well as called Israel to remove economic restrictions. During the Uniting for Consensus Meeting, where UN Security Council's (UNSC) reform proposals were discussed, Davutoglu proposed to hold the next meeting in Istanbul in the beginning of 2014 and this proposition was reportedly accepted by the majority of the participants.