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Turkey, Israel to Form Crisis Cell

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits the Great Neve Shalom Synagogue in central Istanbul (AFP)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits the Great Neve Shalom Synagogue in central Istanbul (AFP)
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Turkey, Israel to Form Crisis Cell

Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits the Great Neve Shalom Synagogue in central Istanbul (AFP)
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visits the Great Neve Shalom Synagogue in central Istanbul (AFP)

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday concluded his visit to Turkey, where he received a warm welcome from his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who described the visit as a “historic step” and a turning point in relations between his country and Israel.

While Erdogan welcomed the visit, opposition parties and civil organizations protested the visit against the backdrop of the 2010 MV Mavi Marmara incident.

Israel had killed ten Turkish nationals in the Mediterranean for participating in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

Sources from the delegation accompanying Herzog revealed that Ankara and Tel Aviv had agreed to form a “crisis cell,” headed by the Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and chief adviser to the Turkish president and presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin.

According to media reports, Turkey and Israel agreed to make contacts as soon as any crisis occurred that might negatively affect the relations of the two countries. This policy had proven successful in the incident of an Israeli couple who were detained in Turkey months ago on charges of espionage and photographing one of Erdogan’s residences in Istanbul.

Herzog once again called for restricting the activity of the Palestinian Hamas movement on Turkish soil, sources revealed.

The same sources said that the Israeli president found Erdogan open to a real dialogue and discussed with him a series of issues whose practical effects on the ground will be examined.

The most feasible option for natural gas transmission from the East Mediterranean to Europe is through Turkey’s pipeline network, Oded Eran, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University and Israel’s former Ambassador to Jordan and the EU told Anadolu Agency (AA).

“The various conflicts, including the 12-year rift between Turkey and Israel, prevented the exploration of this option and made Israel look for alternatives,” Eran said in an exclusive interview with AA.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Turkey on Wednesday, the first by an Israeli head of state in many years, is seen as a step towards moving from a period of strained ties to improved bilateral relations.

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World

Indonesia Says Proposed Gaza Peacekeeping Force Could Total 20,000 Troops

Israeli military vehicles drive past destruction in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli military vehicles drive past destruction in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
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Indonesia Says Proposed Gaza Peacekeeping Force Could Total 20,000 Troops

Israeli military vehicles drive past destruction in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo
Israeli military vehicles drive past destruction in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, January 21, 2026. REUTERS/Amir Cohen/File Photo

A proposed multinational peacekeeping force for Gaza could total about 20,000 troops, with Indonesia estimating it could contribute up to 8,000, President Prabowo Subianto’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

The spokesman said, however, that no deployment terms or areas of operation had been agreed.

Prabowo has been invited to Washington later this month for the first meeting of US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace. The Southeast Asian country last year committed to ready 20,000 troops for deployment for a Gaza peacekeeping force, but it has said it is awaiting more details about the force's mandate before confirming deployment.

"The total number is approximately 20,000 (across countries) ... it is not only Indonesia," presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi told journalists on Tuesday, adding that the exact number of troops had not been discussed yet but Indonesia estimated it could offer up to 8,000, Reuters reported.

"We are just preparing ourselves in case an agreement is reached and we have to send peacekeeping forces," he said.

Prasetyo also said there would be negotiations before Indonesia paid the $1 billion being asked for permanent membership of the Board of Peace. He did not clarify who the negotiations would be with, and said Indonesia had not yet confirmed Prabowo's attendance at the board meeting.

Separately, Indonesia's defense ministry also denied reports in Israeli media that the deployment of Indonesian troops would be in Gaza's Rafah and Khan Younis.

"Indonesia's plans to contribute to peace and humanitarian support in Gaza are still in the preparation and coordination stages," defence ministry spokesman Rico Ricardo Sirat told Reuters in a message.

"Operational matters (deployment location, number of personnel, schedule, mechanism) have not yet been finalised and will be announced once an official decision has been made and the necessary international mandate has been clarified," he added.

World

Iran Offers Clemency to over 2,000 Convicts, Excludes Protest-related Cases

FILE - In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, File)
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Iran Offers Clemency to over 2,000 Convicts, Excludes Protest-related Cases

FILE - In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo obtained by The Associated Press, Iranians attend an anti-government protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP, File)

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei granted pardons or reduced sentences on Tuesday to more than 2,000 people, the judiciary said, adding that none of those involved in recent protests were on the list.

The decision comes ahead of the anniversary of the Iranian revolution, which along with other important occasions in Iran has traditionally seen the supreme leader sign off on similar pardons over the years.

"The leader of the Islamic revolution agreed to the request by the head of the judiciary to pardon or reduce or commute the sentences of 2,108 convicts," the judiciary's Mizan Online website said.

The list however does not include "the defendants and convicts from the recent riots", it said, quoting the judiciary's deputy chief Ali Mozaffari.

Protests against the rising cost of living broke out in Iran in late December before morphing into nationwide anti-government demonstrations that peaked on January 8 and 9.

Tehran has acknowledged that more than 3,000 people died during the unrest, including members of the security forces and innocent bystanders, and attributed the violence to "terrorist acts".

Iranian authorities said the protests began as peaceful demonstrations before turning into "foreign-instigated riots" involving killings and vandalism.

International organizations have put the toll far higher.

The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) says it has verified 6,964 deaths, mostly protesters.

World

Macron Says Wants ‘European Approach’ in Dialogue with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)
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Macron Says Wants ‘European Approach’ in Dialogue with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia February 9, 2026. (Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to include European partners in a resumption of dialogue with Russian leader Vladimir Putin nearly four years after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

He spoke after dispatching a top adviser to Moscow last week, in the first such meeting since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"What did I gain? Confirmation that Russia does not want peace right now," he said in an interview with several European newspapers including Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung.

"But above all, we have rebuilt those channels of discussion at a technical level," he said in the interview released on Tuesday.

"My wish is to share this with my European partners and to have a well-organized European approach," he added.

Dialogue with Putin should take place without "too many interlocutors, with a given mandate", he said.

Macron said last year he believed Europe should reach back out to Putin, rather than leaving the United States alone to take the lead in negotiations to end Russia's war against Ukraine.

"Whether we like Russia or not, Russia will still be there tomorrow," Suddeutsche Zeitung quoted the French president as saying.

"It is therefore important that we structure the resumption of a European discussion with the Russians, without naivety, without putting pressure on the Ukrainians -- but also so as not to depend on third parties in this discussion."

After Macron sent his adviser Emmanuel Bonne to the Kremlin last week, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said Putin was ready to receive the French leader's call.

"If you want to call and discuss something seriously, then call," he said in an interview to state-run broadcaster RT.

The two presidents last spoke in July, in their first known phone talks in over two-and-a-half years.

The French leader tried in a series of phone calls in 2022 to warn Putin against invading Ukraine and travelled to Moscow early that year.

He kept up phone contact with Putin after the invasion but talks had ceased after a September 2022 phone call.