Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas meets President Gül

The Palestinian president is expected to exchange views over Cairo talks for Palestinian reconciliation as well as peace talks with Israel, which were suspended indefinitely due to continuing Jewish settlement efforts in the Palestinian territories.

Abbas was in Ankara in February for diplomatic talks with top Turkish officials. Turkey is a strong supporter of the reconciliation process between Palestinian groups and of the Palestinian administration’s cause to be recognized as a sovereign state.

Hamas and Fatah reached a key agreement in Cairo on Dec. 22 that saw Hamas admitted into the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an umbrella organization of the Palestinian independence movement that has engaged in two decades of intermittent peace talks with Israel.

Last week, Israel handed over to the Palestinian government the remains of 91 Palestinians who were killed while carrying out suicide bombings and other attacks, in an effort to renew long-stalled peace talks.

The bodies had been buried in coffins in Israel and were dug up for the transfer. Seventy-nine were transported to Ramallah, which is run by the Palestinian Authority, and 12 to the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which is run by the rival Islamic militant group Hamas.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel is ready for the immediate resumption of peace talks without any preconditions whatsoever.

However, Abbas gave no sign that the gesture would persuade him to return to talks.

Meanwhile, Erdoğan will separately meet in İstanbul with his Georgian counterpart, Nika Gilauri, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali and prime minister of the regional administration in Iraq’s north, Nechirvan Barzani.