Turkey-Israel Latest: Firefighting Leads to a High-Level Meeting

Last weekend,  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan by phone for the planes that Ankara sent to help fight fires in northern Israel.

Now the follow-up: officials from both countries met in Geneva on Sunday. 

Both Israeli and Turkish diplomatic sources confirmed that Joseph Ciechanover, a senior Israeli diplomat, and Turkish Foreign Minister Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu discussed an agreement that would put an end to the crisis between the two countries. Turkish officials had been insisting on compensation and an official apology over the Israeli raid on the Freedom Flotilla in May, in which nine Turkish citizens were killed. 

In contrast to the secret meeting between Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Zurich last June, Netanyahu briefed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in advance. Still, Lieberman is not happy.