Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. This was announced by Orif Gendelman, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister’s office, on Twitter.
The meeting was the first for the two countries’ top officials since 2008. It took place for the first time since the announcement of the restoration of diplomatic relations and the return of ambassadors.
Lapid and Erdogan discussed the fight against terrorism in general and specifically in Israel. The Israeli prime minister thanked the Turkish president for intelligence cooperation during Iran’s attempted terrorist attacks.
In addition, Lapid raised the issue of missing and captured Israelis held by the Palestinian Hamas movement and their return home.
Among the topics of their conversation were economic and energy cooperation, the situation in the region, and the restoration of flights from Israel to Turkey, for which Lapid thanked Erdogan.
Israel and Turkey nearly severed diplomatic relations after the conflict off the coast of Gaza in May 2010. The Israeli Armed Forces then attacked the ship Mavi Marmara, which was delivering aid to the Gaza Strip. A fight broke out on the ship, killing nine Turkish nationals and wounding several Israeli soldiers. Israeli authorities refused to apologize and accused Turkey of supporting terrorism.