Iran president visits Türkiye for security talks

Iran’s president will visit Türkiye on January 24 to discuss the war in Gaza and cooperation against Kurdish militants, as the neighbours seek to boost security against a backdrop of growing instability in the Middle East.

Ebrahim Raisi and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold talks on the conflict between Israel and Hamas, as well as efforts to counter the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq and its Iranian wing, according to people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reports.

Dozens of Turkish soldiers have died in PKK raids in northeast Iraq in recent months, following an expansion of Turkish army posts in the area, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information. The PKK has fought a decades-long war with Türkiye for autonomy.

“Besides bilateral relations, views on current regional and global matters, Israel’s attacks on Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories will be exchanged in the talks as well,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.

Iran has also clashed with Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq over the alleged presence there of Israeli intelligence services. Last week Tehran conducted missile strikes on what it called a Mossad spy base in Erbil.

Officials will discuss trade including the renewal of an Iranian natural gas export contract that’s due to expire in 2026, the people said. They’ll weigh a potential increase in Iranian gas exports to Türkiye, which aspires to become a regional energy transit hub, they added.

Iran often cuts off gas supply to Türkiye in winter to meet its own domestic demand.

Gaza War

Iran-backed militias in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen have actively joined Hamas’s war with Israel and its allies, targeting American forces and commercial ship traffic in the region.

Türkiye is a NATO member but unlike the US and the European Union doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist organization. Erdogan has called the group’s militants “freedom fighters,” though he’s stopped short of cutting ties with Israel altogether.

Economic relations have taken a hit but didn’t rupture. Israel-Türkiye trade declined by 45% to $1.3 billion in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period a year ago, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency.

“While trade relations between the two countries might be affected, they still continue under existing agreements,” Nihat Zeybekci, deputy chairman of Erdogan’s ruling AK Party in charge of economic issues, told Bloomberg in an interview on Monday.

Asked whether Türkiye has any plans to restrict trade with Israel, Zeybekci said: “No. It is definitely not on our agenda.”