Turkey to participate in Arab League meeting; a first in 13 years

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Sep 2024 18:43

Ankara has accepted an Arab League invitation to participate in a ministerial meeting on Tuesday.

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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a press conference after his meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty, at Tahrir Palace in Cairo, Egypt, on August 5, 2024. (AP)

The Arab League has invited Turkey to participate in its Council of Foreign Ministers meeting, diplomatic sources told the Anadolu Agency.

This would mark the first such participation from Ankara in a meeting of the Arab League in 13 years.

The 162nd council meeting is scheduled for Tuesday in Egypt's capital Cairo. According to the Turkish news agency, the country's Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, is expected to speak at the opening session, where he will focus on Turkish-Arab relations and regional issues.

On top of Fidan's regional priorities will be the "situation in Gaza," as stated by Anadolu.

Noting that Turkiye's recently deepening and diversifying relations with Arab countries offer new opportunities for both resolving existing regional problems and establishing future-oriented collaborations based on mutual benefit, the sources said that enhancing institutional relations and coordination with the Arab League is currently on the agenda.

The sources also mentioned that Fidan’s invitation reflects the developing bilateral relations with member states, as well as the growing interest in Turkiye’s role in the region.

Since October 2023, Turkish authorities and the Arab League have been working on improving their relations, as Fidan and other diplomats held a series of meetings with the institution's officials.

According to Anadolu, Fidan has been working on normalizing its relations with multiple Arab countries, including Gulf states. Fidan was also involved in these efforts during his tenure as the head of the country's intelligence agency, the National Intelligence Organization (MIT).

The agency also noted that during the 33rd Arab League Summit, held in Bahrain on May 16, the Arab Ministerial Committee on Turkish Interference in the Internal Affairs of Arab Countries was dissolved.

Since then, no decision regarding Turkish interference has been made in the league's agenda.

Egyptian-Turkish relations vastly improve

On September 5, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi visited Turkey for the first time since he assumed the presidency in June 2014. El-Sisi met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan where the two discussed a number of bilateral and regional issues.

The meeting is the latest of substantial shifts in the country's bilateral relations after el-Sisi became president. The current Egyptian president assumed the role after Mohammed Mursi was ousted in popular protests, souring relations with Ankara who supported Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

In this month's meeting, Turkey and Egypt affirmed their firm support for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and the Palestinian people's right to establish an independent, sovereign state.

The two sides also discussed several issues and developments in the region, including supporting Iraq's sovereignty and stability, supporting the political process led by the Libyans under the auspices of the United Nations, achieving peace, security, and stability in the Horn of Africa region, finding solutions to the ongoing conflict in Sudan and the resulting humanitarian crisis, as well as finding a permanent and comprehensive solution to the conflict in Syria, in addition to emphasizing the importance of combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.