Author: Petr Lyukimson, Israel, exclusively to VK
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the names of two people who played a key role in achieving a ceasefire in Gaza - the head of Turkey's foreign intelligence service Hakan Fidan and his Israeli counterpart, chief of "Mossad" Tamir Pardo.
As Erdogan said after leaving Cairo, he left two of his confidants – Fidan and chairman of the ruling party of Turkey Ömer Çelik. Soon, Tamir Pardo arrived in the capital of Egypt as a personal envoy of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; he is associated with Hakan FIAD by a longstanding personal acquaintance (of course, we can only guess where and under what circumstances they met).
Pardo and Fidan started negotiations at the beginning of last week and conducted them non-stop. At some stage, they were joined by the head of Egyptian intelligence Rifat Shhata. It is clear that during the negotiations Fidan and Shhata represented not only their own position, but also the position of Hamas. The negotiations between the heads of intelligence agencies of the three countries were closely monitored not only by Israel, Egypt and Turkey, but also by Washington.
Recall that in his speech about achieving a cease-fire agreement Netanyahu expressed his special thanks to the "leadership of “Mossad". After Erdogan’s statement it finally became clear to the Israelis what the Prime Minister meant.
It remains to add that Hakan Fidan is considered one of the closest officials to Erdogan. In August 2010, shortly after the approval of his current position, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed concern that Fidan, known for his sympathy for Iran, would create many difficulties for Israel. It is possible that this is so, but at the same time in recent years Hakan Fidan has often maintained contacts between Israel and Turkey. In particular, we know that this is his second meeting with the representative of Israel this year. The first time he met with Netanyahu's personal envoy in the summer.
