Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu arrived in Cairo on Tuesday night for an official visit. He had talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday. During a joint press conference with Aboul Gheit, Davutoğlu was asked about the motivation behind his attempt to soothe relations between Iraq and Syria by paying consecutive visits to those countries after the two neighbors withdrew envoys over Baghdad's allegations that Damascus was sheltering insurgents.
Davutoğlu responded that Turkey exerted these efforts as part of a historic responsibility, the Anatolia news agency reported, without elaborating. Meanwhile, the Syrian News Station reported that while in Damascus on Monday, Davutoğlu offered his condolences to Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal on the death of his father. Turkey maintains dialogue with Hamas, which won democratic elections in 2006 and now controls the Gaza Strip, despite protests from Israel, which views the group as a terrorist organization.
