ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, mired in a corruption scandal, suffered a new blow yesterday with the online release of another allegedly incriminating phone call involving an ex-minister and a businessman.
The recording of the phone conversation posted on the Internet was purportedly between Reza Zarrab, an Azerbaijani entrepreneur, and a confidant to whom Zarrab explains how former economy minister Zafer Caglayan allegedly complained about not having received a promised kickback of ¤10m ($13.8m).
The voice supposedly of Zarrab says he was “very surprised” that the ex-minister hadn’t received the money which came from his company, saying it must have been “a mistake”. Caglayan and three other ministers were ousted from Erdogan’s cabinet after a police raid on December 17 in the vast corruption probe, which involved Caglayan’s son and several dozen high-profile political and business allies of the Islamic-rooted government. Zarrab was among those arrested in the raid and charged before being released last week along several other suspects pending trial.
EILAT, Israel: The Israeli army was yesterday unloading a ship which it intercepted in the Red Sea allegedly transporting arms from Iran to Gaza and escorted to the port of Eilat.
A correspondent said dozens of containers from the Panamanian-flagged Klos-C were being unloaded and transferred on trucks to a nearby navy base.
Naval commandos seized the vessel on Wednesday in the Red Sea between Eritrea and Sudan, and it was escorted into Eilat on Saturday by two Israeli warships.
The military said it was carrying an Iranian shipment of M-302 rockets destined for the Gaza Strip which is controlled by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.
The army chief, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, said: “Each one of these rockets poses a threat to the safety of the citizens of Israel - each bullet and each rocket that was discovered had an Israeli address.”AFP
