Erdogan, el-Sisi demand Israel halt looming offensive on Rafah
Al Jazeera
Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo as relations warm following years of tensions.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi leader have called for a halt to Israel’s looming offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza as the leaders held bilateral talks in Cairo.
Erdogan’s visit to Egypt on Wednesday comes as ties between Ankara and Cairo are back on track after years of tensions and frosty relations.
The Turkish leader arrived in the Egyptian capital, his first visit to Cairo in over a decade, after visiting the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, where he met UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Erdogan met el-Sisi at Cairo’s Ittihadiya palace, according to Egyptian state media. Their talks focused on bilateral relations and regional challenges, especially efforts to stop the war in Gaza, el-Sisi later said at a joint news conference.
“We agreed on the need for an immediate ceasefire [in Gaza] and the need to achieve calm in the West Bank” to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state, el-Sisi said.
