Israel lauds Turkey's approval of reconciliation deal
Xinhua, August 21, 2016 Adjust font size:
Israel lauded on Saturday that the Turkish parliament has approved a bilateral reconciliation agreement over the weekend, which put an end to a six-year rift.
"Israel welcomes the Turkish parliament's decision, and looks forward to the next steps of its implementation," said a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.
It added Israel expects the future exchange of ambassadors.
Turkish officials announced earlier that its parliament had authorized the deal between the two countries, signed in June 27, over the weekend.
The deal normalized the bilateral relations strained for the past six years, following a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound Turkish flotilla in 2010 that set out to block the Israeli-imposed blockade on the enclave.
Ten Turkish activists died in the clashes with the Israeli navy.
According to the agreement reached in June, Israel will transfer 20 million U.S. dollars to compensate the families of the Turkish victims.
The deal also enables Turkey to carry out rehabilitation projects in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, devastated from several rounds of fighting between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist organization ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, in the past decade.
The countries also agreed to launch talks over gas exports from Israel to Turkey. Endit