ISTANBUL: Turkiye’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday spoke in Ankara with the Palestinian president and the head of Hamas in the run-up to a crucial meeting of Palestinian factions set for the weekend.
Erdogan, who has good ties with Mahmud Abbas of the Fatah party and Hamas’s political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh, has said his government will do its best to push for intra-Palestinian reconciliation.
He told Wednesday’s meeting, which was held behind closed doors, that a lack of unity among the Palestinians benefited those “who wanted to undermine peace” according to the Turkish leader’s office.
An official in the Palestinian presidency told AFP that Abbas “invited all Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to attend the meeting of the heads of the factions in Cairo” on Sunday.
The meeting will “discuss how to confront aggression against the Palestinian people, especially from the extremist Israeli government, and to strengthen Palestinian unity,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Sources close to the Fatah party and Hamas said that the Ankara meeting organized by Erdogan focused on Palestinian unity and how to end divisions.
The meeting is “very important especially in light of the continuation of the Israeli aggression in Jerusalem and the West Bank and the continuation of settlement activity,” the sources said.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Since early last year, the territory has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities.
Earlier this month, Israeli forces conducted a two-day raid on the Jenin refugee camp razing swathes of the area, and killing 12 Palestinians, including militants and children
One Israeli soldier was also killed.
The raid on Jenin was one of the biggest operations carried out by the Israeli army in the West Bank in years.
Turkiye is home to prominent Hamas officials even though the Palestinian group, which controls the Gaza strip, is considered a terror organization by much of the West.
Haniyeh and the group’s former chief Khaled Meshal visits Turkiye often.
Erdogan is a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause and a fierce critic of Israel — but he altered regional strategy by initiating an outreach to Israel after several years of tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was due to visit Turkiye this week, but his visit was later postponed, after he had surgery last weekend and as Israel is roiled by protests over contentious judicial reform.
Erdogan on Tuesday promised to continue supporting the Palestinian cause and voiced concerns over the flare up of violence in the West Bank, after meeting with Abbas separately.
“We will continue to support the Palestinian cause in the strongest way possible,” Erdogan said, alongside the Palestinian leader.
“We are deeply worried about the increasing loss of life, destruction, the expansion of illegal settlements and settlers violence,” the Turkish leader said.
“The only way to a just and lasting peace in the region is to defend the vision of a two-state solution.”
Israeli troops killed a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said, as the army confirmed it was conducting “counter-terrorism activity” in a Nablus refugee camp.
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Erdogan meets Palestinian president, Hamas leader in Ankara
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Erdogan meets Palestinian president, Hamas leader in Ankara
- Erdogan has said his government will do its best to push for intra-Palestinian reconciliation.
- He told Wednesday’s meeting that a lack of unity among the Palestinians benefited those “who wanted to undermine peace” according to the Turkish leader’s office
Libya says UK to analyze black box from crash that killed general
TRIPOLI: Libya said on Thursday that Britain had agreed to analyze the black box from a plane crash in Turkiye on December 23 that killed a Libyan military delegation, including the head of its army.
General Mohammed Al-Haddad and four aides died after a visit to Ankara, with Turkish officials saying an electrical failure caused their Falcon 50 jet to crash shortly after takeoff.
Three crew members, two of them French, were also killed.
The aircraft’s black box flight recorder was found on farmland near the crash site.
“We coordinated directly with Britain for the analysis” of the black box, Mohamed Al-Chahoubi, transport minister in the Government of National Unity (GNU), said at a press conference in Tripoli.
General Haddad was very popular in Libya despite deep divisions between west and east.
The North African country has been split since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Haddad was chief of staff for the internationally recognized GNU, which controls the west. The east is run by military ruler Khalifa Haftar.
Chahoubi told AFP a request for the analysis was “made to Germany, which demanded France’s assistance” to examine the aircraft’s flight recorders.
“However, the Chicago Convention stipulates that the country analizing the black box must be neutral,” he said.
“Since France is a manufacturer of the aircraft and the crew was French, it is not qualified to participate. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, was accepted by Libya and Turkiye.”
After meeting the British ambassador to Tripoli on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Taher Al-Baour said a joint request had been submitted by Libya and Turkiye to Britain “to obtain technical and legal support for the analysis of the black box.”
Chahoubi told Thursday’s press briefing that Britain “announced its agreement, in coordination with the Libyan Ministry of Transport and the Turkish authorities.”
He said it was not yet possible to say how long it would take to retrieve the flight data, as this depended on the state of the black box.
“The findings will be made public once they are known,” Chahoubi said, warning against “false information” and urging the public not to pay attention to rumors.
General Mohammed Al-Haddad and four aides died after a visit to Ankara, with Turkish officials saying an electrical failure caused their Falcon 50 jet to crash shortly after takeoff.
Three crew members, two of them French, were also killed.
The aircraft’s black box flight recorder was found on farmland near the crash site.
“We coordinated directly with Britain for the analysis” of the black box, Mohamed Al-Chahoubi, transport minister in the Government of National Unity (GNU), said at a press conference in Tripoli.
General Haddad was very popular in Libya despite deep divisions between west and east.
The North African country has been split since a NATO-backed revolt toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Haddad was chief of staff for the internationally recognized GNU, which controls the west. The east is run by military ruler Khalifa Haftar.
Chahoubi told AFP a request for the analysis was “made to Germany, which demanded France’s assistance” to examine the aircraft’s flight recorders.
“However, the Chicago Convention stipulates that the country analizing the black box must be neutral,” he said.
“Since France is a manufacturer of the aircraft and the crew was French, it is not qualified to participate. The United Kingdom, on the other hand, was accepted by Libya and Turkiye.”
After meeting the British ambassador to Tripoli on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Taher Al-Baour said a joint request had been submitted by Libya and Turkiye to Britain “to obtain technical and legal support for the analysis of the black box.”
Chahoubi told Thursday’s press briefing that Britain “announced its agreement, in coordination with the Libyan Ministry of Transport and the Turkish authorities.”
He said it was not yet possible to say how long it would take to retrieve the flight data, as this depended on the state of the black box.
“The findings will be made public once they are known,” Chahoubi said, warning against “false information” and urging the public not to pay attention to rumors.
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