Çavuşoğlu, Israel’s Lapid hold phone call

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu held a phone conversation with his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, on Feb. 20 ahead of a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to Turkey.

The conversation came after a Turkish delegation, headed by presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın and Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal, visited Israel last week.

Herzog will pay a visit to Turkey upon the invitation of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on March 9 and 10 as part of an ongoing joint effort to normalize the relations between the two countries.

In a television interview last month, Erdoğan said he expected Herzog to visit, hailing the trip as an opportunity to “open a new chapter in relations between Turkey and Israel.”

Erdoğan also said he was ready to cooperate with Israel on a gas pipeline project in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey and Israel have been in talks since last year for normalizing the ties. Erdoğan and Herzog held phone conversations to discuss the ties and ways to mend them by exchanging ambassadors after four-year incommunicado.

Turkey had withdrawn its ambassador and asked Israel to do the same after Israeli security had killed scores of Palestinians who were protesting Washington’s moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.