Turkiye sets Netanyahu meeting with Erdogan 3 days after Abbas visit

ISTANBUL (AFP): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Turkiye on July 28 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, just days after a visit by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, the president’s office announced Thursday.

“President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will welcome the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Turkiye in the course of the same week,” said the statement, issued late Thursday.

Abbas is due in Turkiye on Tuesday, with Netanyahu arriving three days later, said the statement.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed the visit, the first by an Israeli prime minister to Turkiye since 2008.

The talks will be on Turkish-Palestinian relations and the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as other international issues, it added.

After several years of tension between the two countries, relations between Turkiye and Israel have improved over the past year, with several high-level visits, including that of Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

In April, however, Turkiye condemned clashes that erupted inside the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque, where Israeli police fought with Palestinians inside Jerusalem’s holy site.

Erdogan said Israel had crossed a “red line.”