Turkey seeks better reports with Israel, but prevents Palestine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would like to have better ties with Israel and that intelligence-level talks between the two sides are continuing, but criticised Israeli policy against Palestinians as unacceptable “”.

Both countries have had a bitter relationship in recent years, despite strong trade ties, ousting ambassadors in 2018. Ankara has repeatedly condemned Israel's invasion of the West Coast and treatment of Palestinians.

Palestinian politics is our red line. It is impossible for us to accept Israel's policies against Palestine. Their ruthless acts there are unacceptable”, Erdogan said.

Speaking before reporters after Friday's Istanbul prayers, Erdogan said Turkey had problems with “people at the high level of” in Israel and that ties could have been “very differently” if those were not the case.

If there were no high-level issues, our connections would have been very different. We'd like to get our connections to a better point. ”

Turkey and Israel, former allies, expelled each other's top diplomats in 2018 due to clashes at the Gaza Strip, where dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. Ankara and Tel Aviv continue business activities with each other.