Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has arrived in Turkey to meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to reports today (Tuesday) in Palestinian media outlets. According to the report, Haniyeh is heading a delegation of senior Hamas leaders visiting Ankara.
The expected meeting with Erdogan comes after Haniyeh first visited Iran last week to discuss the political and security consequences of the war in the Gaza Strip with senior Iranian leaders. Haniyeh had previously discussed the war two weeks before with Erdogan.
Yesterday, it was reported that Erdogan decided not to meet with American Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, reportedly preferring to hike in the mountains of the Black Sea district. Blinken met instead with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
Jerusalem believes that this is an effort by Erdogan to avoid meeting with Blinken, though sources in the Turkish government noted that Fidan is Secretary of State Blinken’s Turkish counterpart. However, Erdogan has personally met with Blinken before, with their last meeting haven taken place last February.
This snub comes after a deterioration in relations between Erdogan and Blinken in recent months due to the war in the Gaza Strip and America’s broad support for Israel. A few weeks ago, Erdogan said that “The fact that America sense aircraft carriers to the region doesn’t contribute to the advancement of peace. The American Secretary of State said that he comes to Israel as a Jew, and not a minister – what does that say of him? If someone said that they are coming to Turkey as a Muslim, how would you respond?”
