Turkey, Israel to carry out joint naval maneuvers

On the sideline of the visit held by the Turkish Prime Minister Masoud Yilmaz to Israel, the Israeli Defense Ministry on Tuesday announced that Israel and Turkey will carry out second military maneuvers in East Mediterranean in implementation of the agreements signed between the two sides in compliance with their military alliance.

A spokesman for Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai said that these maneuvers had been agreed upon during the current visit of Yilmaz to Israel. But he said that no date was set for its implementation, adding that Israel and Turkey agreed to extend an invitation to Jordan to participate in the maneuvers. As previously done, The spokesman described the maneuvers as being done for "humanitarian" purposes.

US Deparment of Defense spokesman Kenneth Bacon said the US is planning to participate in the exercises as it did in similar exercises, called Reliant Mermaid, earlier this year. He also said the date for the upcoming maneuvers is still being discussed.

The Israeli announcement came while the Turkish prime minister was holding a meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

Yilmaz said that in his meeting with Arafat, they discussed enhancing relations between Turkey and the Palestinian government and said his government is ready to participate in establishing peace in the area.

During the meeting three agreements were signed in economic and social fields.

The Turkish businessmen will hold with their Palestinian counterparts a meeting during the visit to discuss the attempt to establish a free trade zone between the Palestinian areas and Turkey.

Meanwhile, the Israeli daily Maariv said that chairman of the Jordanian intelligence Samih al-Bateikhi recently paid a secret visit to Israel. Israeli radio quoted the paper as saying that during his visit al-Bateikhi met with high-ranking Israeli intelligence, military and security forces and discussed with them means of deepening and strengthening the Turkish, Israeli, Jordanian military alliance.