Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday (January 11) invited his Turkish counterpart President Tayyip Erdogan to visit the country as he received Ankara's new ambassador in another token of the countries' recently warming ties, Reuters reports.
Last year, Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial, was the first Israeli leader to visit Turkey since 2008, after the two countries began restoring relations and ending more than a decade-old diplomatic rift.
They agreed to appoint ambassadors mutually in August and After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu won an election in November, he and Erdogan agreed to keep improving ties. "I am sure will contribute to the deepening of relations and cooperation between our two countries," Herzog said.
Netanyahu's return to power at the head of a nationalist-religious government in December has rattled Palestinians and Western and Arab allies who fear it could heighten tensions in the Middle East.
Turkey last week joined a chorus of condemnations of a visit by Israel's new far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, to the sensitive Jerusalem Al Aqsa mosque complex, Islam's third holiest site and Judaism's most sacred.
