Haartez: Turkish- Israeli agreement: Tanks for workers

The Israeli daily Haartez said yesterday that the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon permitted some 800 Turkish workers to work in Israel in the framework of a deal estimated at 687 million dollars with Israeli military and industrial companies to renovate Paton tanks for the Turkish army.

Those Turkish workers are employed by Israeli contractors in building private houses and parts of the money that will be transferred to Turkey will be cut from a sum Israel has to spend in Turkey according to the military agreement which includes the exchange of purchases in the two countries.

However, the military agreement was formulated during lengthy secret negotiations between Israeli companies for war production and their Turkish counterparts.