Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to pay a working visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) this week, the top diplomat's office announced Wednesday.
Fidan will be meeting UAE officials on May 9-10, the ministry said.
Although the statement didn’t elaborate, the war in Gaza is likely to be a top item on Fidan’s agenda.
NATO member Türkiye has been very critical of Israel for its attacks on Gaza that have killed over 34,000 people, mostly women and children, and backed steps to try its leadership at the World Court for genocide.
It has repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire, sent thousands of tons of aid and urged the West to exert pressure on Israel to allow increased aid flows to reach Gazans.
Ankara has also been emphasizing the importance of Muslim unity to stop Israel and cooperated with Abu Dhabi to help achieve a cease-fire, deliver humanitarian aid and prevent the conflict from spiraling into a regional war.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself met with the UAE's president and emir, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Dubai earlier this year to discuss strategies.
Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave's access to food, clean water and medicine, pushing millions, particularly residents of northern Gaza, to the verge of starvation. The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the U.N.
Israel bombarded the overcrowded Gaza city of Rafah, where it has launched a ground incursion, as talks resumed Wednesday in Cairo aimed at agreeing the terms of a truce in the seven-month war.
Türkiye, which has so far sent over 52,000 tons of aid, mostly food and water, to Gaza by air and sea to be delivered through the Rafah border crossing, slammed Israel’s operation and called on it to “immediately withdraw.”
“Amid such a positive development towards ending the destruction and massacre in Gaza, Israel's increased attacks on Rafah have once again shown that the Netanyahu Government is not acting in good faith," Foreign Ministry spokesman Öncü Keçeli said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
"An offensive on Rafah will affect not only the region but the whole world," he said.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
Fidan is also likely to discuss Turkish-Emirati relations with his interlocutors during the visit.
Türkiye and the UAE have been enjoying a tentative normalization period in their relations for the past three years after a decade of tensions. The pair intensified diplomatic efforts to rebuild links and trade and sought to ramp up cooperation in various industries, particularly in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
