JERUSALEM: Israel has offered Turkey $20m in compensation to the families of those killed and wounded in its botched 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla, Haaretz newspaper reported yesterday.
Citing unnamed Western diplomats briefed on ongoing negotiations with Ankara, the daily said Turkey had yet to respond to the offer. Bulent Arinc, Turkey’s deputy prime minister, said major progress had been made but that a few points still had to be ironed out. “We are not yet ready to sign... but a solution is close,” Arinc told reporters. Once-close relations between the two nations fell apart after Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish nationals during a botched pre-dawn raid on a six-ship flotilla seeking to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza in May 2010.
Obama’s Saudi visit in March: White House
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will travel to ally Saudi Arabia in March, following clear signs of disquiet in Riyadh about his Middle Eastern policies and nuclear talks with Iran.
Obama will fly to meet the Custodain of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz on a trip added onto existing visits to the Netherlands, Brussels and Vatican City, the White House said in a statement.
The White House said that Obama planned to talk to the king about the strategic relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia and “Gulf and regional security, peace in the Middle East, countering violent extremism and other issues of prosperity and security.”AFP
