Blinken meets Turkey’s Erdogan for talks on Israel-Hamas war, Ankara’s request for US jets

By AFP 6 January 2024, 2:34 pm

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This handout photograph taken and released by Turkish Presidency Press Office on January 6, 2024, shows Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) shaking hands with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) prior to their meeting at the Vahdettin private residence of the presidency in Istanbul. (Handout / TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks expected to focus on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and Ankara’s request for US fighter jets.

Washington’s top diplomat had earlier Saturday held a two-hour meeting with Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan about “the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Sweden’s NATO accession process, bilateral and regional issues,” the Turkish foreign ministry says.

Erdogan has been an outspoken critic of Israel in recent weeks, saying last month that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is worse than Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Blinken’s fourth visit to the region in three months comes amid worrying developments, including attacks from Lebanon on northern Israel by the Hezbollah terror group, and assaults in the Red Sea and Iraq by Iran-backed groups.

Those tensions have put intense strains on what had been a modestly successful US push to prevent a regional conflagration in the weeks after the start of the Hamas-Israel war.

War erupted on October 7 when Hamas carried out a devastating attack on southern Israel, killing over 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The thousands of Hamas-led terrorists who burst through the border with the Gaza Strip also abducted at least 240 people of all ages who were taken as hostages into the Palestinian enclave.