ANKARA — Turkey moved to suspend all trade ties with Israel Thursday as the Jewish state claimed Ankara was also preventing third countries from using Turkish ports for Israeli trade.
All Turkish exports and imports to and from Israel were suspended, Bloomberg reported, citing two Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz separately said that Ankara had also started to block Israeli imports and exports at Turkish ports.
Accusing Turkey of breaking trade agreements, Katz said he instructed the Israeli Foreign Ministry to pursue alternatives for trade, focusing on “local production and imports from other countries.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry hasn’t clarified, as of this writing, which ports have been blocked and whether Turkey's move also involves blocking Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, through which Israel imports Azerbaijani oil.
Turkey imposed trade restrictions on 54 product groups in April, a move widely believed to be in response to domestic pressure for the suspension of trade ties with the country amid the rising humanitarian toll in Gaza.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Wednesday that his country would also join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice as the UN court assesses South Africa's claims that Israeli actions are in breach of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
The two countries’ bilateral trade volume stood at $5.4 billion last year, according to official data.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Turkey cuts all trade ties with Israel: Report
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02.05.2024
ANKARA — Turkey moved to suspend all trade ties with Israel Thursday as the Jewish state claimed Ankara was also preventing third countries from using Turkish ports for Israeli trade.
All Turkish exports and imports to and from Israel were suspended, Bloomberg reported, citing two Turkish officials familiar with the matter.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz separately said that Ankara had also started to block Israeli imports and exports at Turkish ports.
Accusing Turkey of breaking trade agreements,........
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