LONDON: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday discussed with his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, preparations for the UN General Assembly in New York next week, during which several countries have pledged to officially recognize the State of Palestine.
Their meeting, at the presidential palace in Ankara, focused on efforts to end Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza that began almost two years ago, the latest developments in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the pursuit of a two-state solution to resolve the wider conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Under the joint sponsorship of Saudi Arabia and France, several major countries and international powers have stated their intention to officially recognize Palestinian statehood during the UN General Assembly, including France, the UK, Canada, Australia and Belgium.
Abbas said that regional security and stability depend on ending the war in Gaza, halting the forced displacement of Palestinians and land grabs by Israel, and ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories through the establishment of a Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
Abbas and Erdogan also discussed Palestine’s strong historical ties with Turkiye, which ruled the Mediterranean region for nearly four centuries through its Ottoman Empire until the British and French mandates for the region during the First World War.
Abbas arrived in Turkiye on Wednesday for a three-day official visit.
