Ankara, September 09: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has cancelled a planned visit to the occupied West Bank due to Israel’s opposition to his entrance via Gaza.
A senior Israeli diplomatic official reported the decision on Tuesday night, highlighting Tel Aviv’s policy not to hold meetings with diplomats who met with Hamas leaders in Gaza during the same trip.
“If they go directly from Gaza and meetings with Hamas to Jerusalem and meetings with Israeli leaders, it creates the impression that we are legitimizing those visits,” the Jerusalem Post quoted the unnamed official as saying.
Earlier this month, Norway’s special Mideast envoy, John Hansen-Bauer, met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus before arriving for talks with Israeli officials.
The move infuriated Israeli sources who complained the Norwegians did not inform Tel Aviv of the meeting, which led to cancellation of high-level talks between the Israeli and Norwegian sides.
Turkey, Norway and Russia all maintain contact with the Gaza-based Hamas despite pressures from the West against any relations with the Palestinian resistance group, which refuses to recognize Israel.
Meanwhile, a Norwegian security official has met Hamas leaders in Gaza recently to talk about the issue of a prisoner swap for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The last week talks were focused on the number of Palestinian prisoners that Israel would expel to some European countries including Norway, Xinhua news agency reported.
Hamas and Israel remain at odds over the prisoner exchange with Tel Aviv asking for a number of the security prisoners it would release to be deported — a call Hamas has reportedly rejected.
—–Agencies