Israeli Foreign Minister To Visit Turkey Amid Heightened Iranian Threats
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will visit Turkey this week amid worries over growing threat of attacks against Israeli citizens by Iranian agents.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will visit Turkey this week amid worries over growing threat of attacks against Israeli citizens by Iranian agents.
Lapid office announced the snap visit on Sunday after months of warming ties between Israel and Turkey, adding that he would meet with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, who last month visited Israel.
Israeli officials and media began issuing the warnings in the end of May, citing suspected assassination or abduction plots by Iran, which has vowed to avenge the May 22 assassination of a Revolutionary Guards colonel in Tehran that it blamed on Israeli agents.
Earlier in the day, Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for “efforts to thwart (Iran’s) terrorist attacks against Israelis,” adding that “the threat has not yet passed and that the counterterror efforts must continue.”
On Saturday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued a statement reiterating that there is a serious risk of attacks on Israelis in Turkey by Iranian networks.
Despite repeated statements from Israeli officials warning of impending Iranian attacks, Tehran has generally remained silent, but on Saturday, the Iranian and Turkish foreign ministers had their first phone call since the warnings.
Iranian state media said Cavusoglu has invited his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian to visit Turkey, without providing any time for the visit.
Ankara has reportedly warned the Islamic Republic against attacking Israelis in Turkey, saying it is not prepared to allow Iran to use its territory to carry out acts of terrorism against other nations.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to Iran at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart, was welcomed by Raisi at Saad Abad palace on Sunday, which follows several other foreign visits to Tehran in recent weeks in a what could be a determined effort to show that the Islamic |Republic is not isolated internationally.
Iran’s state media said that officials from the two countries signed nine Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) on transit and transportation, scientific and cultural exchanges, agriculture and other fields in a session overseen by the presidents.
Speaking in a joint press conference with his Kazakh counterpart after the signing ceremony, Raisi claimed bilateral trade ties have increased in recent months, adding that the volume of transactions should reach $3 billion, which sounds far-fetched given the current figure of about $265 million according to the country’s customs administration.
Just recently, Raisi welcomed Turkmenistan’s new President Serdar Berdimuhamedow and signed documents for bilateral economic cooperation, and a day earlier, Pakistani Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was in Iran to bolster ties.
The Raisi administration has promulgated once and again that its foreign policy is focused on expanding relations with neighbors, a policy hailed by the Supreme Leader.
