Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is set to meet with government officials both in Israel and the Palestinian Authority during his visit this week.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu is expected to visit the Temple Mount on Wednesday as part of his two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories that begins Tuesday.
It is the first such visit by a Turkish foreign minister in 15 years and is part of the warming of ties between the two countries.
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Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s itinerary
Çavuşoğlu is slated to land in Israel on Tuesday and travel to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his PA counterpart Riyad Malki.
The next day he is slated to meet with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, after which the two men are expected to give a press conference in English.
Çavuşoğlu will also meet with Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov, visit Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center and Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram, al-Sharif. Such a visit to the Temple Mount is unusual for a visiting dignitary to Israel.
He will attend both an economic event in Tel Aviv and one with the Turkish Jewish community before departing on Wednesday.
Çavuşoğlu is expected to discuss the restoration of ambassadors in both the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv and the Israeli one in Ankara as well as the possibility of an Israeli-Turkish pipeline to export natural gas to Europe.
His visit follows Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey in March, the first such visit since the one made by former prime minister Ehud Olmert in 2008.
Expanding Turkey’s diplomatic reach
This visit comes in the aftermath of a visit Çavuşoğlu made to the United States last week in which he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Turkey has looked to mend its relations with Israel, as part of a larger push to improve its relations with the West.