Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu visited this afternoon Jerusalem’s Old City and the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount. His visit there was described as private, and he was not accompanied by any Israeli officials. Yesterday, sources at the Foreign Ministry said Israel is committed to freedom of religion and thus has no objection to a Muslim minister visiting Al-Aqsa. This evening, Cavusoglu met with the members of the Turkey-Israel Business Council and the Turkish Union in Israel association.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yair Lapid met mid-morning with Cavusoglu at the ministry in Jerusalem. The two ministers then addressed the press. Lapid said that “Israel and Turkey are two regional powers, and more than that, two nations with a long, ancient and shared history. … We won’t pretend that our relationship has not seen its ups and downs. But we remember that Turkey was the first Muslim nation to recognize Israel back in 1949. And we have always known how to return to dialogue and cooperation.”

Lapid noted that following the visit, both he and Cavusoglu expect to see progress in diplomatic, security and economic bilateral relations. “In our conversation today, we agreed to relaunch our Joint Economic Commission and to begin working on a new civil aviation agreement between our countries. Beyond diplomacy, Israelis simply love Turkey. Every day, tens of flights depart Israel for Turkey with thousands of Israelis who love your culture and music, beautiful beaches and colorful bazaars.”

“We agreed that despite our differences, the continuation of a sustainable dialogue would be beneficial. And this should be based on mutually respecting each other’s sensitivities. This would be beneficial not only for our bilateral relations, but also for peace in our region, and today during our discussion, we also exchanged views on regional issues,” said Cavusoglu at the joint press conference.