WarSclerotic

Turkey is ready to discuss its ongoing issues with the United States as long as there are no threats, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday, amid a widening dispute between the NATO allies that has sent the country’s currency plunging.

Speaking to ambassadors in Ankara, Cavusoglu also said Turkey’s relations with the European Union were on a firmer basis and normalizing once again.

He said he would meet with the European Commission’s deputy head, Frans Timmermans, to speed up talks on visa liberalization for Turks, while Turkish and Russian working groups would hold talks on visa-free travel to Russia after the Muslim Eid holiday next week.

Meanwhile, in an effort to bolster the Turkish lira, Qatar on Wednesday pledged $15 billion in investment to Turkey.

The U.S. ruled out removing steel tariffs that have contributed to the currency crisis in Turkey, even if Ankara frees a U.S. pastor on trial in Turkey on terrorism charges.

The White House stance appeared to give Turkish authorities little incentive to work for the release of pastor Andrew Brunson, whose case Turkish officials have said is a matter for the courts.

The dispute is one of several between the NATO allies that have contributed to instability in Turkish financial markets, including diverging interests in Syria and U.S. objections to Turkey’s ambition to buy Russian defense systems.

While the Brunson matter appeared far from being resolved, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan got a shot in the arm from Qatar’s emir, who approved a package of economic projects, investments and deposits after the two met in Ankara.

The Qatari money will be channeled into banks and financial markets, a Turkish government source told Reuters.

The move by Turkey’s Gulf ally offered further support to a lira rally after the Turkish central bank tightened liquidity and curbed selling of the currency.

The Turkish lira has lost nearly 40% against the U.S. dollar this year, driven by worries over Erdogan’s growing control over the economy and his repeated calls for lower interest rates despite high inflation.

The dispute with the United States, focused on a tit-for-tat tariff row and Turkey’s detention of Brunson, helped turn the currency’s steady decline into meltdown.

It touched a record low of 7.24 to the dollar early on Monday, rattling global stock markets and threatening the stability of Turkey’s financial sector.

U.S. President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Turkish metals exports to the United States last week prompting Turkey to raise tariffs on U.S. cars, alcohol and tobacco by the same amount on Wednesday. Tariffs were also doubled on goods such as cosmetics, rice and coal.

The White House called the Turkish response a step in the wrong direction and signaled a hard line on Brunson’s release.

“Pastor Andrew Brunson is an innocent man held in Turkey and justice demands that he be released. Turkey would do well not to test POTUS Trump’s resolve to see Americans who are wrongfully imprisoned in foreign lands returned home to the United States,” Vice President Mike Pence tweeted.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders made clear the United States has no plan to remove the steel tariffs if Brunson is released, though she said it could remove sanctions imposed on two senior Turkish officials.

The United States sanctioned Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, blaming both for being involved in Brunson’s arrest and detention. Brunson is accused of backing a 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan, which Brunson denies.

On Wednesday, a court in Izmir, where Brunson is on trial, rejected his appeal to be released from house arrest. An upper court had yet to rule on the appeal, his lawyer told Reuters.

There was also optimism about better relations with the European Union after a Turkish court released two Greek soldiers pending trial. Cavusoglu said ties with the bloc, long strained, were on a firmer basis and had started normalizing.

In another high-profile case, a Turkish court freed Taner Kilic, the local chairman of Amnesty International, a researcher from the rights group said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday ‎presented the cabinet with his new security doctrine ‎for Israel, which entails increasing defense spending by ‎billions of shekels. ‎

The “2030 security concept,” which has been in the works for two years, covers issues ‎such as the regional threats Israel is likely to ‎face in the coming decade, the necessary military ‎build-up, and updated defense and security ‎principles. It addresses bolstering Israel’s offensive and cyber ‎capabilities, upgrading missile ‎defenses, continued reinforcement of the home‎front, and the completion of all security fences.‎

The Prime Minister’s Office said the full ‎document is classified. Netanyahu will soon present ‎it to the Knesset Subcommittee on Intelligence ‎Affairs and Secret Services, the IDF General Staff, ‎the Mossad and the Shin Bet security agency.‎

Israel’s longstanding defense doctrine has not been ‎revised in years, and Netanyahu formulated the outline ‎after lengthy consultations with top former and current defense ‎officials.

The plan will demand an increase to defense ‎spending in the coming decade, Netanyahu said. ‎

According to the plan, the military will continue ‎its streamlining process but the budget for Israel’s intelligence agencies will ‎increase by 0.2-0.3% to reach 6% of gross ‎national product.‎

The outline stipulates that the additional ‎funds, estimated at 3 billion to 4 billion shekels ‎‎($815 million-$1 billion) per year, will be channeled ‎to the Shin Bet and the Mossad. ‎

Once Israel’s GNP reaches $500 billion, the ratio of defense spending ‎will be re-examined.‎ GNP reached $347.8 ‎billion in 2017.

The overall increase in defense spending over the ‎‎next decade is expected to reach NIS 100 billion ‎‎‎($27 billion). ‎

The budgetary implications, which are not ‎classified, will soon be ‎submitted for cabinet ‎approval, the Prime Minister’s Office said on its ‎website.‎

‎”Due to our small area, the population concentration ‎and the numerous threats around us, Israel will ‎always have security needs that are much greater ‎than any other state of similar size,” Netanyahu ‎said Wednesday.‎

‎”Today, the Israeli economy is strong enough to ‎allow for this increase and in any case this ‎increase will be enacted while maintaining a ‎responsible budgetary framework.‎

“In the last 20 years, we ‎have cultivated a free economy in order to serve ‎national needs, especially security. Faced with ‎accumulated threats, we are at a turning point. ‎Today we are called upon to invest more in security ‎in order to defend our achievements and ensure ‎continued economic growth. ‎

‎”The combination of our security and economic ‎strengths will increase Israel’s status as an asset ‎in the eyes of other countries and thereby increase ‎our diplomatic strength,” Netanyahu said.

A source in the Finance Ministry said the government “has yet to find the budgetary sources to support the ‎financial aspects of the defense doctrine. It was ‎agreed at the cabinet meeting that in the next ‎meeting the Finance Ministry will present the ‎implications of this move and its potential impact ‎on social budgets.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Wednesday ‎dismissed criticism leveled at him over Israel’s ‎attempts to negotiate a long-term cease-fire with ‎Hamas.‎

‎”My strategy is to talk directly to the Palestinian ‎public – not with Hamas leadership,” he told Israel ‎Hayom. ‎

‎”The public in Gaza must understand that they have ‎everything to gain from maintaining calm and ‎everything to lose if they don’t.‎‏ ‏‎ Our goal is to ‎see the public in Gaza rise up and replace the [Hamas] ‎regime. We have no interest in ruling Gaza.”‎

According to Lieberman, toppling the Hamas regime ‎remains one of his main objectives, but it will not ‎come as a result of eliminating Hamas leader Ismail ‎Haniyeh, as he once promised to do, rather as a ‎result of driving a wedge between the Palestinian in ‎Gaza and the terrorist group ruling them.‎

He further dismissed the criticism leveled at him by ‎Habayit Hayehudi leader Naftali Bennett, saying that ‎resuming the operations at the Kerem Shalom cargo ‎crossing was a reward for Hamas. ‎

‎”I took office on June 1, 2016, and instead of one ‎Haniyeh, there are 200 dead Hamas operatives and over ‎‎40 Hamas sites that we have destroyed. They [Hamas] ‎don’t care about human life, but they lament every ‎infrastructure we eliminate,” he said. ‎

The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet was briefed ‎Wednesday on the progress in the Egyptian efforts to ‎broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.‎

A senior Israeli official denied that an agreement ‎‎with Hamas would exclude the issue of the Israeli ‎‎captives, saying, “There can be no true agreement ‎‎with Hamas without the return of our citizens and ‎‎soldiers, and a guarantee of long-term calm on the ‎‎border.”

The cease-fire agreement Egypt is trying to ‎negotiate between Israel and Hamas includes a one-‎year truce as well as several measures meant to ‎alleviate the dire economic situation in the Gaza ‎Strip, the Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen TV ‎reported Thursday.‎

According to the report, under the deal, Qatar ‎would pay the salaries of Hamas government officials in Gaza as well as for the enclave’s power ‎supply. Those payments used to be carried by the ‎Palestinian Authority, but PA ‎President Mahmoud Abbas suspended them earlier this year in a bid to ‎pressure Hamas into ceding control of Gaza.‎

The deal also includes establishing a “naval ‎corridor” between Cyprus and Gaza through which ‎goods could be delivered to Gaza, as well as ‎the construction of a port in the ‎Sinai Peninsula, which would operate under Israeli ‎security supervision to send goods to ‎Gaza.

It was unclear whether these two plans would ‎coincide. ‎

The report said the next 48 hours of the ‎negotiations would be “crucial” to the efforts to ‎achieve a cease-fire. ‎

If the truce holds for the planned year, negotiations ‎will be held to extend it.‎

The report came several hours after the London-based ‎Arabic ‎newspaper Al-Hayat reported that Egyptian ‎General Intelligence Service Director Maj. ‎Gen. ‎Abbas Kamel met with senior Israeli defense ‎‎officials in Tel Aviv on Wednesday as part of ‎‎Cairo’s efforts to broker a long-term cease-fire ‎‎between the Jewish state and the terrorist group ‎that rules Gaza. ‎

Kamel is also expected to meet with Palestinian ‎‎Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, the ‎‎report said.‎

According to Al-Hayat, Kamel’s meeting with Israeli ‎‎officials focused on the two main issues of the ‎‎agreement, namely humanitarian gestures for Israel ‎‎to offer the Gaza Strip and the fates of two ‎‎Israeli civilians and the bodies of two soldiers ‎‎held by Hamas.‎

Both Al-Hayat‎ and Al Mayadeen ‎said the issue of ‎a potential prisoner exchange deal would be ‎discussed only after the cease-fire proves viable, ‎giving no timeframe.‎

Hamas is holding the remains of Staff Sgt. Oron ‎Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin, killed in the Gaza Strip ‎in separate battles in 2014, as well as two living ‎Israeli civilians – Ethiopian Israeli Avera Mengistu ‎and Bedouin Israeli Hisham al-Sayed – both men with mental health issues who crossed into Gaza ‎willingly in 2014 and 2015 and were captured.‎

A senior Israeli official denied that an agreement ‎‎with Hamas would exclude the issue of the Israeli ‎‎captives.

“There can be no true agreement ‎‎with Hamas without the return of our citizens and ‎‎soldiers, and a guarantee of long-term calm on the ‎‎border,” ‎he said.

“The current calm is the result of ‎‎determined IDF operations that will continue as ‎‎needed, in accordance with the understandings ‎‎reached by the Egyptians and the United Nations. It ‎‎is in light of these understandings that the Kerem ‎‎Shalom crossing was opened and the Palestinian ‎‎fishing zone was expanded. ‎

‎”As long as this calm e quiet is maintained, it will ‎‎be possible to deal with humanitarian issues, ‎‎including the return of the Israeli captives.”‎

Residents of Israeli communities near the Gaza border ‎‎harshly criticized the negotiations with Hamas. ‎

The residents, who have already experienced five ‎‎violated cease-fires in recent months, said they ‎‎believe a large military operation in the Gaza ‎‎Strip is unavoidable.

Iran is “categorically” rejecting a report by U.N. experts which says al-Qaida’s leaders in Iran “have grown more prominent” and have been working with the extremist group’s top leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, to influence events in Syria.

The report quoted unnamed U.N. member states saying the Iranians and al-Zawahri countered the authority of an al-Qaida-linked group and caused “formations, breakaways and mergers of various al-Qaida-aligned groups in Idlib” in rebel-held northwestern Syria.

Spokesman for Iran’s U.N. mission Alireza Miryousefi remarked Tuesday that the experts’ report was based on information from an unidentified member of the Security Council committee that is monitoring sanctions against al-Qaida and the Islamic State extremist group.

“In a letter to the chair of the committee, Iran categorically rejected such a claim and requested corrective measures,” Miryousefi said.