Musk and Israel agreed to use “Starlink” in Gaza

On Tuesday, the suspension of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s planned visit to Ankara, which had previously attracted great interest from the Turkish side, was announced simultaneously in Ankara and Tehran.

The communications department of the Turkish presidency said: “Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi will not make the planned visit to Ankara on Tuesday,” without specifying whether the visit was postponed or canceled or even mentioning the reason.

At the same time, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Raisi postponed his planned visit to Turkey on Wednesday, without specifying the reasons.

A sudden decision

Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his Iranian counterpart would visit Turkey at the end of the month, saying they would focus on formulating a joint response to the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

Erdogan made these statements to Turkish journalists who accompanied him during his return from participating in the extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit in Riyadh on November 11, where he said: “Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi will visit us on the 28th of this month.”

Until Monday evening, the official Turkish media spoke extensively about the visit and the steps that Ankara and Tehran could take together in the face of Israeli aggression in Gaza.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Hussein Amir Abdollahian, on Saturday night, and they discussed efforts to cease fire in Gaza and turn it into a permanent ceasefire, ways to provide humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, and a permanent solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as relations between the two countries and ways to strengthen it in various fields, as announced by the Foreign Ministries of the two countries .

This was followed by a phone call between Presidents Erdogan and Raisi on Sunday, in which they discussed Israel’s brutal and illegal attacks on the Gaza Strip and efforts to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. A statement from the Turkish presidency reads: During the phone call, the two presidents underlined the importance of “the countries of the Islamic world, especially Turkey and Iran, taking a common position against Israeli brutality in the Palestinian territories.” .

The statement underlines that Turkey and Iran will continue to work “in a climate of unity to make the temporary truce in Gaza permanent and achieve lasting peace.” He underlined that the two presidents also exchanged views on the preparations and agenda of the Turkish-Iranian High-Level Cooperation Council to be held in Turkey later under their leadership.

Iranian position

It appeared that recent developments in Gaza have prompted greater coordination and consultation between Ankara and Tehran, which have shown a position of support for the Hamas movement and its right to resist Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people.

Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Hossein Abdullahian visited Ankara in early November and discussed the situation in Gaza with Fidan, he was also received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the two sides supported holding a regional conference to discuss the situation, stop Israeli aggression and provide aid to the Palestinian people.

However, diplomatic sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat, on condition of non-disclosure, that the sudden suspension of the visit occurred due to the Iranian president’s attempt to pressure Turkey into taking a position that goes beyond mere rhetoric sharp against Israel, to interrupt trade relations and try to cooperate with it in the field of energy and transport: the gas produced is shipped to Europe through Turkish territory.

After a period of silence and waiting following the outbreak of war in Gaza on 7 October, which included condemning the killing of civilians on both sides and blaming the Hamas movement for this, Erdogan returned to the harsh statements against Israel. and the Western countries that support it, especially the United States, defending Hamas as a national liberation movement that cannot be described as a terrorist organization, and calling Israel a terrorist state that commits war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza .

Competing for roles

The sources stressed that previous meetings between Muslim and Arab leaders had not reached common ground on taking urgent economic and political measures to stop Israeli escalation, but Turkey was heavily involved in efforts aimed at a ceasefire and in an attempt to stabilize it, and proposed a mechanism for guarantors and expressed its willingness to participate in the new security arrangements in Gaza after the end of the war.

She believes Raisi wants to put more pressure on Turkey to maintain relations with Israel, despite having recalled its ambassador for consultations, but Turkey does not want to sever all its ties with Israel, which she also believes is important to help the Palestinians.

Observers said the unfolding war in Gaza revealed discrepancies between Ankara and Tehran, and perhaps “some kind of competition for roles” and influence on Hamas’s position, based on statements about the release of 10 Thai hostages that Hamas released Friday with the start of the four-day truce. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani confirmed that Tehran played a mediating role for their release, at the request of Thai authorities.

Kanaani said, in statements on Saturday: “From the first week after the outbreak of the war in Gaza; At the request of the Thai authorities, the Thai Foreign Minister held talks with his Iranian counterpart in Doha, asking him to facilitate the procedures for the release of the Thai hostages. The issue was followed up jointly between Iran and Qatar and a list of names “The issue is from a humanitarian point of view and Hamas officials have taken this into account.”

But the Hamas movement announced that the release of the Thai hostages occurred in response to a request from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Sabah newspaper, close to the Turkish government, also revealed that intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin had 4 meetings with Hamas leaders in Doha and Ankara. And in Istanbul, during the last six weeks, during which Hamas has received requests from several countries for the release of citizens detained by the movement, and that Hamas has already implemented those requests, which Kalin said: Their implementation will help efforts made, especially by Turkey, to stop the opening fire and allow aid to reach Gaza residents.