ISTANBUL (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was scheduled to meet the leaders of Turkey and Greece on Saturday as part of a week-long diplomatic tour aimed at easing tensions that have risen in the Middle East since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas three months ago.
The Biden administration’s top diplomat began his discussions in Istanbul with a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, before a meeting with President Tayyip Erdogan, who condemns Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Talks in Turkey are also expected to focus on Turkey’s process to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership, said a senior State Department official traveling with Antony Blinken.
US officials have lamented the slow process, but are now confident that Ankara will soon approve Sweden’s membership in the alliance, with the Turkish parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee backing the application last month, the minister said. American official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. lawmakers have delayed the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey pending approval for Sweden to join the alliance, becoming its 32nd member.
Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Finland joined last year.
Antony Blinken will then travel to the island of Crete to meet Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Greece, a NATO member, is awaiting the green light from the US Congress for the sale of F-35 fighter jets.
Antony Blinken will then travel to Arab states, Israel and the occupied West Bank, with the stated aim of avoiding a regional escalation of the conflict in Gaza.
The war began when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive killed 22,600 Palestinians, according to Palestinian officials, and the conflict has spread to the West Bank, Lebanon and the Red Sea.
Antony Blinken also hopes to advance negotiations relating to the governance of Gaza and Israel’s war objective, which wants to eradicate Hamas.
Washington wants regional countries, including Turkey, to play a role in reconstruction, governance and potentially security in the Gaza Strip, ruled by Hamas since 2007, the US official said.
(Reporting Simon Lewis; French version Elizabeth Pineau)
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