Hurriyet DN Online with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Ocak 03, 2009 11:34
Turkey's prime minister is traveling to Saudi Arabia as part of his diplomatic efforts to end the violence in the Middle East. Foreign Minister Ali Babacan would also attend the talks. (UPDATED)
The prime minister's office said Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday left for Saudi Arabia, his last stop in consultations over the past week. He has already visited Egypt, Syria and Jordan after Israel's attacks in the Middle East escalated tension.
Turkey fears the recent developments in Gaza could have a spillover effect in the region and could worsen the already fragile situation. The fighting has troubled Turkey's efforts to help broker peace between Israel and its Arab opponents.
In Egypt, he revealed a two-phase plan to end the tensions in the Gaza Strip: urging the foreign ministers of the Arab League to take the initiative for an immediate cease-fire and securing reconciliation between the Palestinian fractions of al-Fatah and Hamas.
Foreign Minister Babacan also left for Riyadh where he is going to attend the Organization of The Islamic Conference, the state-run Anatolian Agency (AA) reported Saturday.
The report said Babacan would attend Erdogan's meeting with King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia.
BABACAN: "HUMANITY TRAGEDY"
Babacan has expressed concerns about failure of some countries and international organizations to take action in the face of recent developments in Gaza in a televised interview broadcasted ahead of his travel.
He described the incidents in Gaza in the last week as a "humanity tragedy" in his interview with the state television TRT-1.
The Israeli military has carried out more than 700 strikes since it launched a massive offensive on Hamas a week ago, killing at least 435 Palestinians.
"We regret that Israel launched air strikes against Gaza only five days after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's visit to Turkey during which Syria-Israel indirect talks were high on agenda," he was quoted as saying by the AA.
"In the light of the recent developments, we have already announced that we suspended efforts to broker peace talks between Israel and Syria since re-emergence of an appropriate ground and atmosphere for the talks."
It would be wrong to pursue a "wait and see policy" for Gaza and the basic instruments to find solution to problems in the Middle East are political dialogue and diplomacy, he added.
"We think a comprehensive and a sustainable truce should be signed in the region. And, one of the most important elements of the agreement should be Israel's easing the blockade of Gaza in a controlled way," he said.
Turkey attaches great importance to ensure compromise among Palestinians, and to resume Israeli-Palestinian, Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese talks and these processes could be held in parallel, he added.
