Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said senior Turkish and Israeli officials met about a month ago to set up a mechanism aimed at preventing flare-ups linked to Syria.
Saar made the remarks in an interview with Azerbaijan’s APA news agency published on Monday during his visit to Baku. He said Israel hopes for “a different, better future” in relations with Turkey but added that it depends “entirely on the Turkish side.”
The Israeli FM did not describe the format of the mechanism or identify who attended the meeting, beyond calling it a gathering of “high-level officials” from both sides.
Technical contacts between Ankara and Israel previously surfaced in April, when Turkish and Israeli officials held talks in Azerbaijan aimed at avoiding incidents between their forces operating in and around Syria.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at the time that the contacts were technical and not meant to normalize relations.
The renewed emphasis on a mechanism comes as Turkey, Israel and other regional powers try to protect their interests in a fast-changing Syria, where the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule reshaped military deployments and alliances.
Turkey has troops and allied Syrian factions across parts of northern Syria and says its main goals are border security and preventing threats linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Turkey and its Western allies designate as a terrorist organization.
Israel has carried out strikes in Syria for years, saying it is acting to stop threats near its borders and to disrupt arms transfers and networks tied to Iran and Iran-backed groups. Those strikes intensified after Assad’s fall, raising the risk of miscalculation as new actors moved into former regime facilities and airspace.
Saar blames Ankara for the downturn
Saar said Israel has no interest in making relations with Turkey worse than they already are and argued that ties that were once “very good” deteriorated because of Ankara’s choices.
He declined to speculate on the reasons for the deterioration in the APA interview, while still putting responsibility on Turkey and framing any improvement as contingent on Turkish decisions.
Syria talks in the shadow of Gaza
Turkey and Israel restored full diplomatic relations in 2022 after years of strain. The relationship then fell into crisis after Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.
Turkey has called Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide and backed cases and initiatives at international courts and forums. Israel rejects the genocide allegations and says it is acting in self-defense against Hamas.
Turkey also halted trade with Israel in May 2024, a step Turkish officials described as tied to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Critics, however, claimed that commerce between the countries continued, pointing to oil shipments and goods rerouted through third countries.
Even with that rupture, the two countries have signaled in recent months that they do not want a direct confrontation in Syria, where their interests can collide.
In the same interview Saar said he does not expect normalization with Syria in the near future and described current contacts as focused on limited security understandings rather than any wider political settlement.
He said any arrangements under discussion would not amount to peace or normalization, though he left open the possibility of broader progress in the future if tensions can be avoided.