Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu
Photo: AFP
Ehud Olmert
Photo: Hadar Cohen
Turkey denies defining Israel as threat
Turkish Foreign Minister also denies he predicted Israel wouldn't remain independent for long
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday denied reports
which stated that Turkey tagged Israel
as a threat in a significant document that outlines Turkey's policies. Davutoglu denied reports that he himself doubted Israel's ability to survive in the long term, the Washington Times reported during Davutoglu's visit to the US.
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"The news does not have any verification and does not have any validity - it is just speculation," Mr. Davutoglu told reporters, referring to a Turkish media report from late October claiming that Turkey's National Security Council had listed Israel as a "major threat" in its 'red book' while removing the designation from Iran and Syria.
Davutoglu refuted the reports that claimed that he said that "Israel will not be able to remain an independent country" and that he called for a joint Palestinian-Israeli state to be established. "I don't know why the Israeli press is doing this always," he said. "I am a young person ... my memory is quite good. I didn't make such a speech anywhere."
Davutoglu is visiting the US two days after the release of the publication of the leaked Wikileaks documents, in which American diplomats defined the foreign minister as "extremely dangerous" and stated that there is evidence that Turkish Prime Minister "Recep Tayyip Erdogan simply hates Israel".
Davutoglu said in response that "when Israel was working for peace, we had good relations with Israel", he stressed.
The Turkish foreign minister mentioned a meeting held before Operation Cast Lead where Israel's prime minister at the time, Ehud Olmert was a guest in Erdogan's home as part of Israel's indirect talks with Syria: "And ... there was a telephone link with President Bashar Assad in Syria and indirectly Ehud Olmert was speaking to Bashar Assad through Prime Minister Erdogan and myself," he said."
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