Israel's PM hopes to mend relations with Turkey "soon"

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he hopes relations between Israel and Turkey will be normalized "soon," after years of diplomatic strife between the formerly close allies.

Netanyahu told a press conference in Jerusalem that the two countries are in "advanced-stage" talks. "An additional meeting will be probably held soon. I hope it will lead to a positive result, that is a full rehabilitation of the relations," he said.

Addressing the recent cooperation between Turkey and Israel in the wake of last week's fatal bomb attack in Istanbul, Netanyahu said that "the cooperation between the two countries is good."

Netanyahu's remarks came a few hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to console him over the deaths of three Israelis in an Istanbul terror attack on Saturday.

The talk was the first time in three years that Erdogan had spoken directly with an Israeli official, amid a tumultuous relationship between the countries since 2010.

On Sunday, Netanyahu said Israeli and Turkish authorities are working together to discover whether the attack was aimed at Israelis or not.

The cooperation on the matter came despite the fact that relations between the countries have been strained since 2009, after nine Turkish people who boarded a flotilla to the Gaza Strip were killed in a clash with Israeli soldiers. Endit