Turkey’s Erdoğan Plans To Warm Ties With Israel, Egypt

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday he planned to improve ties between his country and Israel, as well as Egypt, in the coming months, and would reappoint ambassadors to those countries. His remarks came after a meeting with the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, at which the two leaders signed a number of cooperation agreements. In a sign of thawed relations between Ankara and Abu Dhabi, the UAE says it plans to invest $10 billion in Turkey, while Erdoğan has announced a trip to the UAE in February. Turkey is already in talks with Saudi Arabia over improving ties, but these haven’t yet yielded significant results. Relations between Turkey and the UAE have been strained for a number of reasons, including Turkey’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood; Turkish suspicions that the UAE supported Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, who Ankara says was responsible for the 2016 failed coup attempt; and the UAE’s signing of the Abraham Accords with Israel.