Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon criticized Turkey for providing safe haven to Hamas operatives to plan and carry out attacks against Israel during a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon on Tuesday.
"Hamas has two terror headquarters--in Gaza and in Istanbul," Ya'alon said. "Hamas moved its terror headquarters from Damascus to Istanbul, in Turkey, a NATO member, where it is represented by Saleh al-Arouri, who orchestrates terrorist attacks against Israel from there and attempted to instigate a coup against Mahmoud Abbas."
Ya'alon indicated that both Turkey and Qatar have supported Hamas and said Turkey was "playing a cynical game."
On Tuesday, Vanity Fair published an article indicating that Hamas was planning a massive attack on civilian populations from the Gaza strip before Israel began its offensive against the terror group in July.
Ya'alon also expressed concern over a proposed nuclear deal between U.S. and Iran, saying the "kind of agreement" is as important as the prospect of having an agreement at all:
We've said all along that better no agreement than a bad agreement and the question is what are they discussing at the moment, are they talking about how many centrifuges there will be and if so, why should they have centrifuges at all?
Are they talking about other elements of the Iranian military nuclear project such as missiles ready for nuclear warheads?
Ya'alon said although there may be disagreements between U.S. and Israeli officials, they "should not be allowed to cloud the deep friendship and warm, intimate ties between the two countries."