ANKARA: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Ankara on Jan. 4 to meet his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan for talks likely to focus on the situations in Gaza and Syria as well as bilateral ties, a Turkish official said on Tuesday.
A planned visit by Raisi in late November was postponed due to the conflicting schedules of the two regional powers’ foreign ministers, the official also said. At the time, Turkiye’s foreign minister was in New York as part of a “contact group” of Muslim countries on Gaza.
Turkiye, which supports a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has harshly criticized Israel for its attacks on Gaza, called for an immediate ceasefire, and said Israeli leaders should be tried in international courts for war crimes.
While it has ramped up its rhetoric against Israel since it launched its air and ground assault on Gaza in retaliation for Palestinian militant group Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Turkiye has also maintained commercial ties with Israel, prompting criticism from some opposition parties and Iran.
