Turkey’s Energy Minister Berat Albayrak is set to visit Israel by the end of this year to conclude an agreement for the building of a natural gas pipeline from the Jewish state to Turkey, the Israeli energy minister said on Wednesday. A visit by Albayrak, son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and a key member of his inner circle, would be a significant diplomatic move by Ankara after a rapprochement deal last year between the two countries mended a long-standing rift, according to AFP and Times of Israel.
The crisis was triggered after Israel raided a Gaza-bound ship in 2010 sent by a Turkish charity which Israel considers to be a terrorist organization. Nine Turkish activists were left dead in the ensuing clashes. But the two countries normalized ties in June last year and rapidly begun discussing the gas pipeline project.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said both countries decided to accelerate efforts to conclude by the end of this year an intergovernmental agreement that will enable the construction of a pipeline from Israel to Turkey.
“Hopefully, Mr. Albayrak will pay a visit to Israel this year in 2017, which will help us accelerate and try to conclude this agreement,” the minister said at the World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul after meeting Albayrak.
He added that no exact date had been fixed but it would take place in the coming months.
