Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave Israel the impression through
third parties that he would keep the Mavi Marmara from setting sail in May 2010,
the Prime Minister’s Office was quoted as saying in the comptroller’s report
released on Wednesday.
“The prime minister worked intensively through
diplomatic channels, principally with the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, to
stop the flotilla,” the report quoted the office as saying.
“The efforts
led to a high feasibility that the Turkish flotilla would be
prevented.”
The Prime Minister’s Office told State Comptroller Micha
Lindenstrauss that Erdogan – contrary to the impression he created – refrained
from stopping the flotilla, and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was
briefed about this only a week before the flotilla set sail.
While the
comptroller’s report portrayed a haphazard, ad hoc decision-making process that
preceded the boarding of the Mavi Marmara on May 31, 2010 – a process that did
not incorporate the necessary staff work and the orderly presentation of
secondary options – the report does catalogue intensive diplomatic work
beforehand in an attempt to get the flotilla stopped before it left
port.
This included discussions through numerous channels – including
Egypt, the Turkish Embassy in Washington and directly with the Turkish Foreign
Ministry in Ankara – to look for ways to prevent the sailing of the vessel,
which the comptroller said everyone from Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak
and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on down realized was different than
previous flotillas Israel had dealt with.
Liberman told Lindenstrauss he
raised the issues in all high-level meetings he held with his counterparts from
abroad.
The comptroller concluded, however, that as praiseworthy as all
that activity was, it was no replacement for orderly, documented and coordinated
staff work – which would have enabled each player to know exactly what the other
was doing.
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