Israel defence minister invited to Turkey
AFP
JERUSALEM - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Thursday he had been invited for talks in Turkey, a long-time ally with whom relations have been frosty over the past year.
"Today I met the Turkish ambassador, who delivered to me an invitation to travel to Turkey," Barak, who is also head of the centre-left opposition Labour party, said at a political meeting in Tel Aviv.
He also raised the prospect of a meeting between Israeli President Shimon Peres and his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul, on the sidelines of the world climate conference in Copenhagen.
Barak said he hoped such a meeting might succeed in "putting bilateral relations back on track," underscoring the "strategic, economic and historic role" Turkey played in the Middle East.
In late November, Turkey and Israel pledged to improve ties as an Israeli minister held talks in Ankara, the first since the Jewish state's war in the Gaza Strip poisoned relations between the two regional allies.
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