Israeli energy minister was holding talks in Turkey on Thursday, the first such trip since the two countries normalized ties after the 2010 crisis triggered by Israel’s deadly storming of a Gaza-bound aid ship.

The trip by Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz marks the first visit at ministerial level from the Zionist entity for six years and comes as energy importer Turkey eyes the developing offshore gas reserves of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Until the 2010 crisis, NATO member Turkey had been the Zionist entity’s key ally in the Muslim world, with the process to normalize relations strongly backed by the United States.

Steinitz arrived in Istanbul in the morning and was holding talks with Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, an embassy official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.

Steinitz was later due to address the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, delivering the opening remarks for an Atlantic Council panel titled “A New Landscape in the Eastern Mediterranean”.

Source: AFP