Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas met with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday in Ankara for talks on a ceasefire and peace, a day after a visit to Moscow, Agence France-Presse reported.
The closed-door talks came at a tense time during the 10-month Israel-Hamas war, with faltering efforts for a ceasefire and Israel braced for threatened attacks from Iran and its proxies following killings of senior Hamas officials in Iran and Lebanon.
Abbas and Erdoğan discussed “the massacres committed by Israel in Palestinian territories” as well as “steps that need to be taken for a permanent ceasefire and peace” during their meeting at the presidential palace, according to Erdoğan’s office.
Erdoğan has been a fierce critic of Israel’s conduct in the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7 attacks, labeling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “the butcher of Gaza.”
While Hamas is viewed by the United States, the European Union and Israel as a terrorist organization, Erdoğan has described it as “a liberation movement.”
He has also criticized the Western world for failure to pressure Israel to stop the war.
In talks with Abbas, Erdoğan again lashed out at some Western states’ silence in the face of the soaring death toll in Gaza and said that was “unacceptable,” his office said.
He also said that all countries, especially in the Islamic world, should increase their efforts for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and ensure uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.
In July Erdoğan chastised Abbas for not responding to his invitation to visit Turkey.
Abbas added a trip to Ankara after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Tuesday.
He will address the Turkish parliament in a special session dedicated to the Palestinian issue on Thursday.
Abbas, who heads the Fatah Palestinian movement, a rival to Hamas, had already visited Turkey at Erdoğan’s invitation in early March.