President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday said he was going to discuss the Ukraine peace process with U.S. President Donald Trump in a phone call on Monday.
“I will discuss the Ukraine peace process, as well as the Palestinian issue with Mr. Trump in a phone call on Monday evening,” Erdoğan told reporters in Istanbul following Friday prayers.
He assured he was in touch with Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as European leaders on the issue and said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan would represent him at a meeting of the "Coalition of the Willing", a group of nations backing Ukraine, in Paris in coming days.
As it enjoys good diplomatic ties with both Moscow and Kyiv, Türkiye has been one of the major international players seeking a halt to the conflict, which is nearing the four-year mark.
Erdoğan also condemned Israel’s continued blocking of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in tents and temporary shelters amid a severe lack of safe shelter supplies, after Israel's two-year war destroyed entire residential areas and forced mass displacement.
Most tents lack basic safety measures, making them vulnerable to fires, especially as people rely on primitive means for heating and cooking due to power outages and severe fuel shortages.
The Israeli army has killed more than 71,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 others in Gaza since October 2023.
“Suffering of children in Gaza, living in makeshift tents amid wind and rain will not go unanswered, won't go unaccounted to Netanyahu,” said Erdoğan, a virulent critic of the Israeli premier since the start of the Gaza war.
He said Türkiye wants to send containers of life-saving aid to Gaza but “Israel won’t let us.”
“We are nevertheless determined to help Palestinians out of their hardship,” Erdoğan added.
