Israeli official secretly visited Turkey for Herzog visit preparations: report

An Israeli foreign ministry official secretly visited Turkey last month to prepare for an upcoming visit to the country by Israel’s president, Israeli media reported Thursday.

Director General at Israel’s foreign ministry, Alon Ushpiz, reportedly met with Ibrahim Kalin, chief advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to pave the way for Isaac Herzog’s trip scheduled for next month, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.

Ankara is looking to improve strained bilateral relations between the two countries, as it has recently done with other countries in the region such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Upshiz’s visit to Turkey is the first by an Israeli official to the country since 2016, when a bombing in Istanbul killed three Israeli tourists.

Relations between Muslim-majority Turkey and Israel froze over after the death of 10 civilians in an Israeli raid on a Turkish flotilla carrying aid for the Gaza Strip in 2010.

Turkey formalised ties with Israel in 1949, the first Muslim-majority country to do so.