Egyptian,Turkish Foreign ministers urge de-escalation in the Middle East

Egypt’s foreign minister was hosted Saturday (Apr. 20) by his Turkish counterpart.

Sameh Shoukry’s visit to Istanbul was part of the preparations for Egpt’s president upcoming visit to Turkey.

The war in Gaza and the escalation between Israel and Iran were two issues also high on the agenda.

“We have warned, since the beginning, that war in Gaza will lead to the expansion of conflict and tension in the region and we have seen that in the targeting of maritime navigation in the Red Sea and its effect on the international economy and now with this tension and military escalation between Iran and Israel and we called upon both sides to show restraint and not to slip towards a wider frame of military confrontation, whether direct or indirect,”Shoukray said.

“This doesn’t serve the interest of the Palestinian people nor stability in the region.”

The comments came on the same day Iraq said it was investigating a deadly blast on one of its military bases hosting a Iran-aligned group.

The group known as Popular Mobilization Forces are part of the Iraq armed forces.

Militia officials initially described the explosion at the Kalsu military base north of Babylon as an airstrike, blaming it on U.S. forces.

The U.S. Central Command denied in a statement that it had carried out any airstrikes in Iraq.

Suspicions were also directed at Israel which had hinted ta further escalation.

Turkey’s top diplomat Hakan Fidan warned against disregarding the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“If this crisis is not resolved in the way it deserves, if the Palestinians are not given the state, independence and sovereignty they deserve, such crises will continue to increase in our region,” he told the press. 

“Other countries should not think they will not be affected by this, thinking that this will happen only in the Middle East […] as we have said since the beginning, everything related to the Palestinian issue has the potential to trigger global divisions and does trigger them. The visit of Sameh Shoukry to Turkey days after the political leader of Hamas met with Turkish president Recep Tayeb Erdogan and after  Qatar said it was reasseessing its role as a mediator in the war in Gaza.