Egypt and Turkey focus on preventing wider regional conflict

Leaders in Egypt and Turkey are exhausting all avenues possible to prevent Israel’s war in Gaza from becoming a wider regional conflict, the Egyptian and Turkish foreign ministers said Monday at a joint press conference.

Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s foreign and migration minister, said that he spoke with his counterpart Hakan Fidan, Turkey’s minister of foreign affairs, about the crisis in Gaza, the situation in Libya and Sudan, the situation in the Red Sea and the issues in Yemen.

Both ministers said they discussed important regional issues during their meeting this week, including fighting terrorism and ways to reduce tensions in the region, especially ones emerging from Israel’s war in Gaza.

Both countries share the same vision in achieving a ceasefire in Gaza and rejected recent assassinations in the region, including that of Hamas leader Ismail Hanyieh.

Abdelatty said that it’s important to achieve, not only discuss, the two-state solution and end Israeli occupation and aggression against Palestinians to bring stability to the region. He also warned against provocations emerging from the war in Gaza that could lead to miscalculations that would plunge the region into a full-scale war.

“I condemn Israel assassinating the main negotiator of the ceasefire talks, Ismael Haniyeh. We can conclude from this incident that Netanyahu doesn’t want peace. Netanyahu wants to burn the entire region,” said Fidan.