TURKEY tr-diplomacy
Turkish PM to address the Arab League
ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News | 9/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Sevil Küçükkoşum
Turkey’s prime minister has been invited to speak next week at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League, his second address to the group as a non-Arab politician, amid high tensions with Israel.
Turkey’s prime minister has been invited to speak next week at the meeting of foreign ministers of the Arab League, his second address to the group as a non-Arab politician, amid high tensions with Israel.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil al-Araby invited Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to address the Council of Foreign Ministers meeting during his official visit to Cairo next week, Mohammed Al-Fatah Naciri, the Arab League’s ambassador to Turkey, told the Hürriyet Daily News on Thursday.
In his speech, Erdoğan will touch on the wave of popular unrest hitting the region in the “Arab Spring” and will also hit out against Israel, the Daily News has learned. His address to the Arab League will be part of Turkey’s ongoing campaign in the international arena against Israel, which has intensified since Tel Aviv refused to apologize for killing nine Turks last year aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship.
Erdoğan’s upcoming trip to Cairo coincides with the Peace Initiative Group of the Arab League’s meeting at the foreign-ministerial level. It will be the second time Erdoğan will address the Arab League, following a speech he delivered to an Arab League summit in 2010 in Libya.
The Turkish prime minister is also expected to address Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip and call on Arab countries to give their strong support to the Palestinians’ statehood-recognition bid at the United Nations and Turkey’s pledge to take the Gaza blockade to the International Court of Justice.
Although Erdoğan has expressed his intention to cross into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip through the Rafah border during his visit to Egypt, Cairo’s reluctance makes this unlikely to happen, a diplomat told the Daily News.
[HH] Davutoğlu to meet Abbas
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo and discuss Palestine’s upcoming application to the U.N. General Assembly to win recognition as a state. Davutoğlu will also hold a meeting with Arab League chief of al-Araby in Cairo.