JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu started a two-day trip to the Palestinian territories and Israel on Tuesday, the first such visit by a senior Turkish official in more than a decade.
Cavusoglu was scheduled to meet his Palestinian counterpart Riyad al-Maliki and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and on Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov.
Cavusoglu was also expected to visit Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem during his trip.
Recent confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police at the flashpoint site, sacred to both Muslims and Jews, have raised tensions in the region, which have been exacerbated by a planned Israeli march through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City on Sunday.
U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at establishing an independent Palestinian state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, collapsed in 2014 and the two sides have not held serious talks since then.
Israel and Turkey have been working to mend their long-strained ties with energy emerging as a key area for potential cooperation. The two countries expelled ambassadors in 2018 and have often traded barbs over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
