Turkish president, UK’s foreign secretary hold talks in Istanbul

ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday received UK’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron in Istanbul for talks, the presidency said.

The closed-door meeting took place at the Vahdettin Mansion.

Earlier, Cameron met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss regional issues, particularly Gaza, and bilateral relations.

As part of his regional tour, Cameron visited Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Qatar before arriving in Türkiye.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack. The Israeli response has killed 26,083 Palestinians and injured 64,487 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.