Amid fraying Turkish-Israeli relations, Turkey is hosting leaders from the Arab world, Iran and Russia this week for an Asian security summit that may see the increase of Israel's isolation.
The Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) kicks off this week in Istanbul amid global condemnations of Israel's deadly flotilla raid last week.
Though part of the twenty-member forum, Israel has decided to send a diplomat from the Israeli embassy, Reuters has reported, "rather than expose a more senior figure to the fury generated by the killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists in the Israeli commando operation last Monday."
Analysts are anticipating that Turkey will pressure Israel to end the four-year old blockade against Gaza during a conference on Monday. Arab League ministers will gather at the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum on Wednesday in what will likely see continued calls on Israel to change its Gaza policy.
Among the attendees of this years CICA conference are some of Israel's harshest critics, most notably Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Much of the conference's discussions will center on Israel and its blockade on the Gaza Strip as well as Afghanistan, conference organizers have said.
Speaking to a news conference on Saturday, Turkish Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Unal Cevikoz said, "Afghanistan and Gaza are equally test cases for us."
Cevikoz added that the meeting would not focus too much on Iran's nuclear program.
First established in the early 1990s by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, CICA has had two previous conferences both in Kazakhstan.
