'Israel's ambassador to stay in Turkey'
By JPOST.COM STAFF
LAST UPDATED: 06/02/2010 13:27
Officials: No indication Turkish ambassador in Israel to be recalled.
Protesters burn a representation of former prime m Photo: AP
Israel's ambassador to Turkey, Gabby Levy, will not be recalled, Israel Radio reported Wednesday, adding that senior Israeli diplomats said they had no indications of Turkey's intending to return its ambassador, Ahmet Oguz Celikkol, despite press reports to that effect in the last 24 hours.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli media outlets reported that the Foreign Ministry
had ordered the families of its diplomats in Turkey to leave the
country because of the uproar over Monday's naval raid on a Gaza-bound
aid flotilla.
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A Foreign Ministry
spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the reports, and The Jerusalem Post could not
immediately verify the information.
The reports came as former
prime minister Ehud Olmert called for a "rehabilitation" of ties with Ankara, despite fiery
opposition from the once close Middle East ally.
As early
as Monday, just hours after the raid, Israel’s top officials began
working to quell worldwide censure against the operation, in
which nine activists were killed.
Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu cut short his visit to
North America
and canceled his much-anticipated meeting with US President Barack Obama
to head back to Israel, while the UN Security Council convened an
emergency meeting in New York.
Israeli ambassadors around the world were called by their host
governments to explain the incident. The Foreign Ministry, in turn, held
a briefing with all ambassadors posted in Israel.
“It’s a big diplomatic crisis,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon
told The Jerusalem Post. “We are working in emergency mode.”
On Monday, Turkey recalled
its ambassador and canceled three joint military exercises with
Israel.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this
report