Ankara – Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday and discussed the situation in Gaza and developments in the Middle East, Turkey’s state-run television reported.
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Haniyeh is on an official tour of the Muslim world, his first trip outside the blockaded territory since the Islamist group overran Gaza in 2007.
He met Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the Turkish leader’s Istanbul residence, TRT television said. The meeting was closed to the media, but the station citing unidentified officials said discussions centered on Gaza and the Middle East.
Erdogan’s spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
On Monday, the Hamas prime minister will meet the head of an Islamic aid group whose Gaza-bound vessel was the target of a deadly raid by Israeli troops in 2010. Turkey’s ties with Israel, a former ally, deteriorated sharply over the flotilla raid that killed nine activists on the Turkish boat, and Erdogan has demanded that Israel lift all restrictions on the Palestinian territory.
Hamas officials say the goal of Haniyeh’s trip is to improve ties with Muslim countries swept up in the uprisings shaking the Arab world.
The visit comes as Turkey is trying to help efforts toward a reconciliation between the rival Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions.
Hamas and Fatah joined in a short-lived unity government following 2006 parliamentary elections. But the following year, the alliance shattered and Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip during several days of fighting, leaving the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority in charge in the West Bank. Repeated attempts at reconciliation failed, and both sides have cracked down on the other in their respective territories.
Reconciliation talks currently under way with Egyptian mediation appear to be making progress, with both Fatah and Hamas saying they hope to allow Palestinian elections to go ahead in 2012.
Lo bechinam hulech hazrzir eitzel horev alu m’pfnei shehee minoh
tzad hashovo , shedarkon lehazik ushmiroson olechu!
No doubt t teach him how to kill Kurds.