Turkey's Foreign Ministry summoned Israel's ambassador to complain about remarks by Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggesting the new head of Turkish intelligence could leak information to Iran, officials said Tuesday. Israeli envoy Gaby Levy was called to the ministry in Ankara on Monday. “We expressed our discomfort and dissatisfaction with Barak's statement,” a Turkish foreign ministry official, who declined to be named, said. Barak made the comments at a closed-door briefing to party activists on July 25, reflecting the climate of mistrust between Israel and its once close ally. The Israeli minister described Hakan Fidan, who was appointed head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) in May, as a “friend of Iran”. In part of his speech broadcast by Israeli Army Radio, Barak expressed concern that secrets shared with Turkey “could become open to Iran over the next several months”. Fidan was previously a foreign policy adviser to Erdogan, and had served as Turkey's representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
