Turkey’s Erdogan sees positive outcome to talks with Israel next month
WASHINGTON – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday he expected a meeting of Turkish and Israeli officials next month to yield positive results, after the sides collaborated closely following a bomb attack in Istanbul that killed Israeli tourists.
The suicide bombing, blamed on Islamic State, that killed three Israeli tourists and an Iranian in central Istanbul on March 19 was not just an attack aimed at Israel, Erdogan also said in a speech at the Brookings Institute think tank.
Shortly after the Istanbul attack, in his first conversation with an Israeli leader in three years, Erdogan told President Reuven Rivlin after the Istanbul attack that Turkey is “ready to cooperate with Israel against terrorism.”