Turkey holds 'technical talks' with Israel to ease Syria tensions

Turkey is holding technical-level talks with Israel to ease tensions over Syria but is not moving toward normalizing ties, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Wednesday.

Turkey is a key backer of the Islamist-led coalition in Syria that toppled Bashar al-Assad in December after almost 14 years of civil war. Its influence has worried Israel, which has launched air strikes and ground incursions to keep Syrian forces away from its border.

"Now, while we are carrying out certain operations in Syria, there needs to be a deconfliction mechanism at a certain point with Israel, which is flying its planes in that region, just like we do with the Americans and the Russians," Fidan told CNN-Turk television.

"Of course, it is normal to have contacts at the technical level to establish this," he added.

But the foreign minister said this did not mean there would be a normalization in ties strained over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Turkey has suspended all trade with Israel, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "state terror" and "genocide" in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel.

US President Donald Trump on Monday offered himself as a mediator between Israel and Turkey.

Trump, speaking alongside key ally Netanyahu at the White House, touted his "great relations" with Erdogan as an avenue for negotiations.