Turkey has not reached an agreement with Israel, Ankara insists

The Turkish government denied Israeli reports on Friday that it has reached a final agreement to restore diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. Government officials insist that talks are ongoing, Quds Press has reported.

Although the officials explained that no agreement has been reached yet, said the official Turkish news agency, they repeated that they are positive discussions.

Turkish officials have said previously that Ankara and Tel Aviv had started negotiations over the the restoration of diplomatic relations based on Turkey’s well-known conditions. These include lifting Israel’s siege on Gaza, a formal apology for the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla and compensation for the families of the 9 Turkish citizens who were killed in the May 2010 assault. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been in crisis since Israeli commandos boarded the flotilla’s vessels in international waters.

The Israeli media has claimed that one of the terms of the agreement is for Turkey to deport a Hamas leader, who spent 17 years in Israeli prisons. According to Haaretz, an initial agreement has been reached, but has not been signed officially.

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