Erdogan To Obama: Netanyahu To Blame For Stalled Reconciliation
Almost one year after Obama asked Netanyahu to apologize for the death of nine Turkish nationals during the 2010 Gaza flotilla raid, talks with Turkey hit a dead end.
By Barak Ravid | Feb. 27, 2014 | 1:00 AM
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Barack Obama last week that the delay in signing an Israeli-Turkish reconciliation agreement is entirely the fault of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A senior Israeli official involved in the talks with Turkey denied that Israel is to blame for the delay. The Turks are at least equally to blame, if not more so, he said, adding that there are still disputes between the sides that are preventing the deal from being finalized.
Erdogan conveyed his message in a telephone call with Obama last Wednesday, Haaretz has learned. The conversation dealt with a long list of issues connected to the situation in the Middle East, including the ongoing efforts to end the crisis in Turkish-Israeli relations that erupted following Israel’s botched raid on a Turkish-sponsored flotilla to the Gaza Strip in May 2010.
After that conversation, the White House issued a brief statement saying that Obama had urged Erdogan to finalize the agreement and normalize relations with Israel. But Israeli sources who were briefed on the details of the phone call said the two leaders actually held a lengthier discussion of the issue than the statement indicated.
According to the Israeli sources, Obama told Erdogan that almost a year had passed since Netanyahu called the Turkish leader and apologized for the deaths of nine Turkish nationals during the raid. That phone call, which took place during Obama’s visit to Israel, was personally orchestrated by the U.S. president, and it was supposed to launch negotiations between the two sides on a reconciliation agreement. Obama had expected those talks to be concluded within a few months, he told Erdogan, but a year later, nothing had happened.
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