Turkey is prepared to upgrade its diplomatic relations with Israel in order to host the multinational phase of the Middle East peace talks, Yediot Achronot reported Thursday.
The Turkish government approached the countries involved with its offer recently. Israel agreed, but only on condition that Turkey establish full diplomatic relations with it. Israel and Turkey have only de facto relations at present.
The multinational talks are expected to deal with regional items such as water resources and environmental issues.
The United States, which hopes to get the talks started next month, in collaboration with the Soviet Union, plans to invite the European economic powers, Canada and Japan, as well as Israel and the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa.
Costly projects are expected to emerge from the talks and Washington would like its allies to help foot the bill.
The regional talks will be independent of the bilateral peace talks Israel is to hold separately with Syria, Lebanon and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation.
The bilateral talks, which opened formally at the Madrid peace conference three weeks ago, have been delayed because of disagreement over a site. Israel insists they be held in the Middle East, alternating between Israel and Arab sites.
Israel also prefers a Middle East site for the multinational talks. It hinted to the Turks that Ankara would be acceptable if Israel had an ambassador there.
According to Yediot Achronot, Turkey agreed to make the gesture in advance of the conference opening.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
