{"id":21506,"date":"2010-08-24T08:09:52","date_gmt":"2010-08-24T05:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=21506"},"modified":"2023-07-26T12:13:15","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T09:13:15","slug":"interview-with-israeli-fm-avigdor-liberman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/08\/24\/interview-with-israeli-fm-avigdor-liberman\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Israeli FM Avigdor Liberman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interview with Israeli FM Avigdor Liberman on Reka Radio (Russian)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Under no conditions or provocations can any flotilla or ship harm our
\ncountry’s political independence and reach the Gaza Strip.
\n(Translation by Ministry of Foreign Affairs)<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER: Despite Nicosia’s warning, the Lebanese ship with 60 women on\u00a0board – Lebanese, Palestinian and European activists – will set sail on
\nSunday, August 22, with the infamous mission of trying to breach the naval
\nblockade on the Gaza Strip. And the Cyprus authorities have unequivocally\u00a0declared they will not allow the ship to enter Cyprus’s territorial waters\u00a0and will turn the ship away as soon as it approaches its shores. Mr.\u00a0Minister, is this declaration the result of Cyprus’s policy or an\u00a0achievement by Israel’s foreign policy?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

FM LIBERMAN: This declaration is without a doubt part of the new relations\u00a0between us and Cyprus.<\/em> It reflects our new approach of a multilateral\u00a0policy. Suffice it to say that over the past year and a half I met with\u00a0Cyprus’s foreign minister on six occasions<\/em><\/strong>, including twice when he visited\u00a0Israel and on my visit to Cyprus. Our ministers of tourism and social\u00a0affairs also paid visits. In the autumn, the president of Cyprus is\u00a0scheduled to make the first ever visit to the State of Israel.<\/em><\/strong> In general,\u00a0this entire spectrum: the Middle East and Balkan states, meaning Cyprus,\u00a0Greece, Bulgaria and Romania – all these are countries with which we are\u00a0developing especially close ties. It’s no secret, I paid my visits and just\u00a0recently the prime minister of Greece visited here, and President Peres\u00a0visited Bulgaria and Romania. So despite the relative deterioration in our\u00a0relations with Turkey, we do have other alternatives.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER: In other words, Israel’s handprint, in the positive sense of
\nthe word, is today being made in many places, including in Cyprus. Is Israel
\nready for the next wave of history, which will take place after the women
\nequipped with medicine for suffering Palestinian cancer patients are
\nprevented from reaching Gaza?<\/p>\n

FM LIBERMAN: I hope we do indeed succeed in foiling this next flotilla while
\nit is still in Cyprus. However part of Cyprus is Turkish, so there’s a
\nchance they will use <\/span>Famagusta port<\/span><\/em>, where we have a lot less influence.<\/span><\/strong> <\/strong>If\u00a0they anchor in Limassol, they probably won’t be able to sail out of there.\u00a0At any rate, our position is absolutely clear and firm – under no conditions\u00a0or provocations can any flotilla or ship harm our country’s political\u00a0independence and reach the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER: There is another interesting angle here. The Lebanese prime
\nminister and chairman of parliament have refused to make any kind of
\nstatement in support of the actions of the new “peace-loving” ship. Samar
\nAli Hajj, one of the woman organizers of the voyage, reported that the two
\nrefused to meet with her. This refusal indicates that Beirut officially does
\nnot support this action. Again, is this about Israeli pressure or a natural
\nlack of desire to support.<\/p>\n

FM LIBERMAN: This is partly our doing. We indirectly contacted members of
\nthe Quartet – France, the United States, and the other members. We appealed
\nto the president of France, who has great influence in Lebanon. Of course we
\nalso contacted the State Department and the UN secretary-general. Lebanon
\nmust understand that it will bear the full brunt of responsibility for this
\nkind of provocation. I suppose they understand it even without our
\nexplanations. So under no circumstances do they want to bring on a new round\u00a0of escalation in the relations between our two countries. In my humble\u00a0opinion, their position is clear, simple and logical.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER: The humanitarian activity is not limited to the “Mariam”.
\nAnother ship, carrying 60 containers of foodstuffs, office equipment and
\nother things, departed on Wednesday evening from Algeria en route to Egypt
\nand from there to the Gaza Strip. Is this more complex and more volatile?<\/p>\n

FM LIBERMAN: We hope this ship will reach El Arish port, where the entire
\ncargo will be unloaded; and then from there, in the usual manner, under
\nstrict observance of all the inspection rules, the cargo will be transferred
\nto the Gaza Strip. That was the case with the ship from Libya that, in an
\nidentical manner.<\/p>\n

INTERVIEWER: So you don’t expect any special complications here.<\/p>\n

FM LIBERMAN: We hope there won’t be any attempts to breach the blockade –
\nnamely to sail towards El Arish and then suddenly change course and try to
\nbreach the naval blockade on Gaza.<\/p>\n

<\/span>, 23 August 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Interview with Israeli FM Avigdor Liberman on Reka Radio (Russian) Under no conditions or provocations can any flotilla or ship harm our country’s political independence and reach the Gaza Strip. (Translation by Ministry of Foreign Affairs) INTERVIEWER: Despite Nicosia’s warning, the Lebanese ship with 60 women on\u00a0board – Lebanese, Palestinian and European activists – will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":757203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,15,211,225,183,445],"tags":[2356],"class_list":["post-21506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulgaria","category-cyprus","category-cyprus-trnc","category-greece","category-lebanon","category-romania","tag-avigdor-lieberman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}