ANKARA, 3 February 2005 — Turkey yesterday pledged support for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in his people’s struggle for statehood and efforts to reform Palestinian institutions.
“Lasting peace and stability in the Middle East will not be possible until the Palestinian people achieve their independent state and the honorable, prosperous and free life they deserve,” Turkish Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc said at a lunch with Abbas.
“Rest assured that all your efforts for peace will be wholeheartedly supported by Turkey,” he said, according to a statement released by parliament. “We are confident that you will accomplish in the most efficient way the reforms required in the institutions of the Palestinian Authority.
“We will be happy to share with our Palestinian brothers our experience on reform and extend our solidarity,” he said.
Abbas, who was visiting Ankara on the last leg of a four-nation tour following his election as successor to Yasser Arafat, welcomed Turkey’s support.
“We take Turkey’s democratic experience as a model,” he told reporters through an interpreter.
Abbas also highlighted the importance of Jerusalem for the world’s Muslims.
“With the support of peace-loving nations, Jerusalem will again belong to the Muslims and worship will continue in Jerusalem until doomsday,” he said.
On Tuesday, Abbas met with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as Turkish business leaders, who said they would convene a meeting with Palestinian and Israeli colleagues in Turkey in March to discuss possible joint projects.
Ankara says it is ready to assist in the revitalization of the Gaza Strip after Israel pulls its troops and settlers out by the year-end.
Counting on its close ties with both the Palestinians and Israel, Turkey is also eager to help in efforts to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict. During a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories last month, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said his country was ready to facilitate peace initiatives that should also include Syria and Lebanon.
Abbas’ talks in Ankara coincided with a visit by Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalom, who discussed ways of strengthening bilateral ties. Turkey, a non-Arab Muslim nation, has been the Jewish state’s chief regional ally since 1996 when the two countries struck a military cooperation deal, much to the anger of Arab nations and Iran.
Ankara, however, has not refrained from criticizing Israel’s heavy-handed policies against the Palestinians.
Erdogan last May denounced as “state terror” a deadly Israeli raid in the Rafah region of southern Gaza, sparking an unprecedented chill in bilateral ties which his foreign minister sought to overcome during a visit to Israel in early January.
Abbas to Visit Iran
Abbas, meanwhile, has accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
Official Iranian policy does not recognize Israel’s legitimacy but the government of President Mohammad Khatami has said it would not oppose a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict if the Palestinian people wanted this.
Israel has accused Iran of trying to scuttle progress in the peace process by continuing aid to what it calls “terrorist groups”.
“Abu Mazen has received an invitation to visit Iran. He has accepted the invitation and will decide on the date after he returns home,” a senior Palestinian official said, using Abbas’s popular nickname.
A source close to Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed Abbas would probably visit shortly and said his trip showed that Tehran wanted “friendly ties with the Palestinian government as it has with all Palestinian groups”.
“This doesn’t mean that Iran will change its view about the peace process. Iran has always supported the Palestinians politically,” another Iranian source said. Iran’s ties with Palestinian leaders have long been strained over their increasing readiness to compromise with Israel, especially since 1990s interim peace deals that gave Palestinians self-rule in occupied territories.
Abbas was overwhelmingly elected on Jan. 9 as Yasser Arafat’s successor on a platform of non-violent struggle for statehood in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A senior Israeli official said his government saw no reason for Iran to support Abbas but that the Palestinian president might be trying to remove as many obstacles as possible to a revival of peacemaking.
“In line with his current policy of trying to reach understanding with (militant) opposition groups, he appears to be seeking Iranian agreement not to scuttle the current process he is engaged in,” the Israeli official said.
“The Iranians have an interest in showing that they can play a constructive role and be an alternative to the United States in this region. I do not think that this is our business. If Abbas wants to sell his goods, then good luck.”
One Tehran political analyst said the true sign of a dramatic change in Iranian policy would be if Abbas got an audience with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who wants no compromise with Israel which he says should be destroyed.
“Abu Mazen would certainly ask for Iran’s help in reining in extremist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” added the analyst who declined to be named.
Arafat, the longtime Palestinian leader who died in November, visited Tehran soon after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Then-supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini rewarded Arafat by handing over the Israeli Embassy to the Palestine Liberation Organization.
But in 1998, Khamenei called Arafat a lackey of Israel over his signing of a 1993 interim peace with Israel, provoking a war of words with the Palestinian officials.
Arafat paid another visit to Iran in 2000 but got a chilly reception that mirrored Tehran’s deep-seated opposition to his participation in US-sponsored Middle East peace talks that ultimately collapsed into renewed bloodshed.
