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| The Grand Turk |
| Hamas Leaders to Meet Turkish PM in Ankara |
| 2013-06-18 |
| Senior leaders of the Islamist Hamas terror organization will meet on Tuesday in Ankara with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a diplomatic source told the AFP news agency. The group's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, along with Gaza's prime minister Ismail Haniya, will discuss Erdogan's planned visit to the Gaza Strip as well as the situation in Syria, the source said on condition of anonymity. While in Washington in May, Erdogan said he would press ahead with a planned trip to Gaza, despite opposition from the United States, which along with the European Union and Israel long consider Hamas to be a terror organization. Washington had urged the Turkish premier to postpone any visit to Gaza, saying it would be a "distraction" from its efforts to revive the moribund Middle East peace process. While Erdogan claims his visit would be aimed at pushing for an end to Israel's blockade of the terrorist enclave, Washington fears it could damage a reconciliation brokered between Israel and Turkey, Washington's two key regional allies. The once-close ties between Ankara and the Jewish state had deteriorated over the past several years, namely over the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident, which resulted in the deaths of nine Turkish anti-Israel activists, who were seeking to infiltrate IsraelÂ’s borders and pose a threat to the safety and security of the Jewish state. |
| Posted by:tipper |