Full ceasefire in Gaza necessary for regional peace: Turkish FM

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has met with the United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron and emphasised the urgent need for a "full ceasefire" in Gaza to make lasting peace possible in the Middle East.

Israel's atrocities against Palestinians, especially in the besieged Gaza, were in the spotlight during the meeting held at the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s representative office in Istanbul on Friday.

Fidan stressed that a ceasefire in Gaza and a two-state solution must be implemented for permanent peace in the region.

Bilateral relations

A Turkish diplomatic source said the two ministers met for some 90 minutes, followed by inter-delegation talks, and discussed the war in Gaza, bilateral ties, and Türkiye's ratification of Sweden's NATO membership bid.

The two ministers reaffirmed their determination to strengthen bilateral relations between Türkiye and the UK in all areas, especially in trade, economy, and defence industry.

Cameron also expressed his satisfaction that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the presidential decree on Sweden's NATO accession, and approved the relevant protocol.

As part of his regional tour, Cameron visited Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Qatar before arriving in Türkiye.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza since an October 7 Hamas attack. The Israeli response has killed 26,083 Palestinians and injured 64,487 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has left 85 percent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.