The foreign ministers of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, Greece, Nikos Dendias, and Israel, Yair Lapid, affirmed Friday in Jerusalem their countries' close ties, Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported. Dendias noted that the recently triumphant Taliban considered Turkey a friendly country and that Hamas, the Gaza-based Islamic movement that denies Israel's right to exist, congratulated the Taliban with their victory. The cooperation was born amid Turkey's oil-exploration exploits in the Eastern Mediterranean.