President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in his speech at the Brookings Institute on Thursday that he expects a meeting of Turkish and Israeli officials this month to yield positive results.

While a rapprochement has already started despite long-stalled bilateral ties, the two sides have been collaborating closely following a DAESH bomb attack in Istanbul that killed three Israeli tourists.

He further said that the end of the 49-year-old Israeli occupation and Palestine's becoming a free state with its capital in East Jerusalem are necessary for a permanent peace in the Middle East and stressed that Turkey has never strayed from the Palestinians, who live under Israeli occupation and attacks.