Erdoğan meets Hamas chief in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Saturday received Hamas Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul as Middle East tensions run high.

The meeting at the Dolmabahce palace on the banks of the Bosphorus began shortly after 2:30 pm (1130 GMT) and lasted about two and a half hours.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, National Intelligence Agency (MİT) chief İbrahim Kalın, Communications Directorate President Fahrettin Altun and Erdoğan’s chief foreign policy adviser Akif Çağatay Kılıç also attended the meeting.

Establishing a ceasefire and providing urgent humanitarian assistance to Gaza were discussed throughout the meeting.

"We will keep the agenda between us and Mr Haniyeh," Erdoğan said when questioned by journalists on Friday. Hamas said the war in Gaza would figure in the talks.

Before his visit to Istanbul, Haniyeh held discussions with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Qatar. Fidan later disclosed that Hamas was committed to operating solely as a political entity following the establishment of the Palestinian state.