JERUSALEM: Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan meets Israeli leaders in Jerusalem amid regional tension with Syria

Turkish FM Ali Babacan meets Israeli leaders in Jerusalem amid regional tension with Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan met Israeli leadership in Jerusalem on Monday (October 8) amid regional tension with Syria after Israel had launched an air raid in Syria territory by using Turkey's airspace. Babacan who arrived in Jerusalem shortly after he met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Ehud Barak. On Sunday (October 7) in Damascus, Babacan assured Assad that Turkey would not let Israel use its airspace to strike Syria after the raid on September 6 heightened tension in the Middle East. Israeli media reported that Babacan demanded explanations from his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni regarding the aerial incident during a joint dinner in Jerusalem on Sunday. Diplomats said at least four Israeli planes flew in attack formation along the Syrian-Turkish border before striking deep into Syria on Sept 6. Syria and Israel have given little information on the target. Babacan, a member of the Islamist-rooted AK party, repeated in Damascus Turkey's assertions that Ankara had no prior knowledge of the Israeli raid, which Assad said had targeted an unused building linked to the Syrian military. Some U.S. officials have linked the raid in Syria to apparent Israeli suspicions of secret nuclear cooperation between Damascus and North Korea. Damascus and North Korea leaders have denied any nuclear cooperation. Also on Monday, Babacan visited Israel's Holocaust Museum of Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. "Genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Christianophobia, Xenophobia -- all historical yet contemporary ills that the international community shares solemn responsibility to combat," he said after he toured the Hall of Names and laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance. Turkey is also expected to contribute to Western and Arab efforts to prepare Israel and the Palestinians for a U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit in November. Babacan is scheduled to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank later on Monday.

ITN Source | October 8, 2007

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