Israel bolsters links with Greece

Dubai: Amid souring relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv, Israel is building its bridges with a traditional rival to Turkey and a traditional ally to Arabs: Greece.

But the three countries involved sought to distance themselves from the speculation fuelled by the first visit of its kind by an Israeli leader to Greece that the trip is aiming at forming an alliance against Turkey.

"Every country has its full right to develop its relations with other countries," a Turkish official source told Gulf News in response to a question on how Ankara envisions the two-day-trip of Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to Athens, which concluded yesterday.

A press report quoted an official travelling with Netanyahu as saying both Israel and Greece wanted to improve ties with Turkey, and that "certainly this [visit] doesn't harm that [goal]. It can only help".

Greece, at the same time, according to some Athens-based reporters, "wants to avoid the impression that it's improving relations with Israel just as a counterbalance to Turkey".

However, some analysts believe that Israel seems to be trying to close the gap created by Israeli-Turkish relations over the deadly Israeli raid on a Turkish-backed Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. The raid left nine Turkish people dead.

Turkish-Israeli relations were earlier strong in a wide range of fields. Both shared close military and intelligence cooperation. Ankara, which is the only Muslim-majority Nato state, has played a mediation role in the Arab-Israeli peace talks. The popularity of its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Turkish policies in Arab countries have been growing significantly in the past few years, mainly because of Ankara's positions vis-a-vis Middle East issues.

Greece, on the other hand, is considered a traditional Arab ally. Athens forged full diplomatic relations with Israel only in the early '90s, and Israel and Greece signed a defence cooperation agreement in 1994.

During Netanyahu's visit, Israeli and Greek leaders discussed expanding military ties, including sharing military know-how and holding joint drills, according to senior officials from both sides.

Netanyahu said the two nations were "opening a new chapter", while Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said both nations had discussed military cooperation. According to Greek official sources, the talks focused on "new forms of cooperation on defence and security issues".

"Relations are now developing at great speed due to our common interests," another senior Israeli official told reporters on the sidelines of the trip.

Moreover, Greece, which is Turkey's long-standing rival in the Mediterranean region, expressed its readiness to assume a mediatory role in the Arab-Israeli peace process.

Israeli-Greek rapprochement coincided on Tuesday with the denial from the White House and Turkish government over press reports that US President Barack Obama warned Turkey it could lose its chance to obtain US-made weapons over its position on Israel and Iran.

"I really don't know where they would have divined that from," White House spokesman Bill Burton said.

"The president and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago and they talked about Iran and the [Gaza-bound] flotilla and other issues related to that," Burton said.

"We obviously have an ongoing dialogue with them, but no such ultimatum was issued."

"Turkey and USA are strategic allies," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

"On the other hand, not a single country could warn Turkey or display such a stance towards the Turkish prime minister… therefore such a warning is not in question and such news stories do not reflect the reality," Davutoglu said in a statement.

Britain's Financial Times newspaper quoted a top official as saying Obama told the Turkish Prime Minister that "some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill" referring to the US Congress.

Erdogan wants to buy US drone aircraft to combat separatist Kurdish rebels after the US military withdraws from Iraq at the end of 2011, the Financial Times reported.