Turkish FM holds phone talk with Palestinian president

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu Tuesday held phone talk with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the prisoner swap deal between the Palestinians and Israelis, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported. Diplomatic sources were quoted as saying that Davutoglu called Abbas and congratulated him on the swap deal. For his part, Abbas expressed appreciation of Turkey's help in the process by accepting some of the Palestinians released by Israel. Under the deal reached between Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement, Israel began to release on Tuesday 1,027 Palestinian and Arab prisoners in exchange for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas' armed wing in 2006. Shalit was handed over to Israeli authorities earlier in the day.