The mission of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to Riyadh ended with a bilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Today is the third face-to-face meeting between the two since last October 7, the date of the start of the war between Israel and Hamas which created a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
The head of Ankara’s diplomacy, a loyalist of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arrived in the capital of Saudi Arabia with the declared aim of relaunching efforts for a ceasefire and pushing for a political solution that leads to the creation of a Palestinian state. Fidan is returning from a visit to Qatar and last week welcomed Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry to Turkey. Qatar and Egypt are the two countries at the forefront in the search for an agreement between Israel and Hamas that will lead to the release of the Israeli hostages and the end of the conflict. Last April 20, the political leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was received by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul. Fidan himself also took part in the meeting. A series of meetings that brought Turkey back to the center of the negotiations for a ceasefire between the Palestinian organization and Israel. The meeting between Fidan and Blinken is also important because last Saturday the postponement of Erdogan’s mission to Washington was announced.
According to the program initially released, the Turkish leader was supposed to meet American President Joe Biden at the White House on May 9th. The causes of the postponement are not known, however with the start of the conflict in Gaza between Turkey and the USA, NATO allies, there was no shortage of differences of opinion and controversy. President Erdogan has repeatedly refused to define Hamas as a terrorist organization and has repeatedly accused the Israeli government of genocide, comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The United States, on the contrary, continues to support the Jewish state and the recent veto opposed by Washington at the UN Security Council to the recognition of a Palestinian state has triggered a harsh reaction from Erdogan. However, the recent exchange of blows between Israel and Iran has brought Ankara back to the center of mediation aimed at avoiding an escalation of the conflict. In the days marked by the Iranian attack on Israel on 13 April, first Blinken himself with a phone call to Fidan and then the head of the CIA asked Ankara to mediate with Hamas and Tehran.
During the two days of meetings in Riyadh, the Turkish Foreign Minister also met with colleagues from Norway, Jordan and Yemen, as well as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell. The latter, at the end of the meeting, wrote on platform X that Turkey and the EU “agree on the urgency of addressing regional problems and in particular the suffering of the civilian population in Gaza”. According to what was announced by Ankara, during meetings with his Norwegian colleagues, Espen Barth Eide, Jordanian, Ayman Safadi and Yemeni, Shaya Mohsin Zindani, the Turkish Foreign Minister underlined how public opinion is protesting all over the world against Israeli operations. Fidan reiterated the “crucial” importance of the creation of a Palestinian state and discussed the steps to be taken in this direction. Ankara calls on governments to increase diplomatic pressure on Israel to end attacks on Gaza. (AGI)
TUY/RED
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