Israel, Turkey hold secret meeting to resume reconciliation talks

Israeli and Turkish officials met in Italy on Monday to discuss resuming reconciliation talks between the countries, an Israeli official confirmed to Xinhua.

Israeli Foreign Minister Director General Dore Gold, a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met with his Turkish counterpart, Feridun Sinirlioglu, in Rome, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not issue any statement on the matter and refused to comment on reports on the secret meeting.

Ties between the two countries, which were once close, deteriorated in 2010 following the incident on the Mavi Marmara, in which a flotilla of mainly Turkish activists tried to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. An Israeli commando unit boarded one of the ships as it entered Israeli territorial waters. Nine Turkish civilians died in the ensuing clash on board.

Following the incident, the two countries demoted the level of their diplomatic relations, as Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador in Ankara on September 2011. The relations have also suffered blows due to Israel's operations in the Gaza Strip in recent years, which have been strongly denounced by Turkey.

During U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Israel in March 2013, and supposedly upon his request, Netanyahu called then Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and apologized for the killing of the Turkish civilians during the Mavi Marmara incident.

Since the phone call, diplomats of the two sides have held meetings in both Jerusalem and Ankara on the process of reconciliation, and made an apparent breakthrough in December 2013.

According to Turkish media outlets, the breakthrough was achieved after agreements were reached on the sum of Israeli compensations (20 million U.S. dollars) to the families of the victims. Another advancement was noted in February 2014 when the Turkish parliament agreed to forego any lawsuit against the Israeli soldiers who took over the flotilla.

Both sides worked on formulating a proposal in the early months of 2014, which still awaits the approval of the Israeli and the Turkish leaders. It includes complete normalization in the relations between the countries.

In February, Israel's Army Radio reported that Netanyahu had been stalling the signing of the draft out of fear that the move will not resonate well with right-wing politicians and supporters who objected to his apology in front of Erdogan in 2013. Endit