Iran's Raisi flies to Turkey for delayed Gaza talks

ANKARA: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi flew to Turkey on Wednesday for twice-delayed talks aimed at ironing out past differences between the two neighbours and trying to halt the spread of the Israel-Hamas war.

Raisi’s visit to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes with the war in Gaza starting to enflame tensions and escalate fighting across the Middle East.

The United States and Britain have stepped up joint air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to their attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.

Israel meanwhile has repeatedly targeted Tehran-linked figures in Syria and appears to be on the brink of launching a full-scale war against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

The rapid pace of the Middle East escalation forced Raisi to delay his visit to Ankara twice.

Planned talks in Ankara in early January were called off when twin blasts claimed by Islamic State group jihadists killed 89 people at the shrine of assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qasem Soleimani.

A trip he had planned for November was cancelled because of conflicting schedules of diplomats involved in consultations over the Gaza war.

“Iran and Turkey have a common position in supporting the Palestinian people and the resistance of the oppressed but powerful Palestinian people,” Raisi said before boarding the plane for his first official visit to Turkey since his 2021 election.

The turmoil engulfing the Middle East since Israel went to war in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 attack has added a new layer of complexity to Turkey’s close but uneasy relationship with Iran.

Erdogan depicts the Iran-backed Hamas as legitimately elected “liberators” and not the “terrorist” organisation it has been called in west.

He has compared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler for pursuing an offensive that has killed more than 25,000 people — mostly women and children — according to the enclave’s health ministry.

Relentless Israeli attacks have left much of the besieged Palestinian territory in ruins and starved of food.