Türkiye, US Resume Consultations Under ‘Strategic Mechanism’

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meets the American delegation taking part in the strategic mechanism meetings in Ankara on Sunday. (Turkish Foreign Ministry)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meets the American delegation taking part in the strategic mechanism meetings in Ankara on Sunday. (Turkish Foreign Ministry)
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Türkiye, US Resume Consultations Under ‘Strategic Mechanism’

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meets the American delegation taking part in the strategic mechanism meetings in Ankara on Sunday. (Turkish Foreign Ministry)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan meets the American delegation taking part in the strategic mechanism meetings in Ankara on Sunday. (Turkish Foreign Ministry)

A round of consultations held by the Türkiye-US Strategic Mechanism to discuss bilateral, regional and international issues, concluded in Ankara on Monday.

The two-day meetings were co-chaired by Acting Deputy Secretary of State and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar.

The Türkiye-US Strategic Mechanism was initiated on April 4, 2022 following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden in Rome in October 2021.

On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Nuland in Ankara.

Nuland also held meetings with Türkiye's Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yildiz. The two officials exchanged views on the developments in the Middle East and Africa.

Ending years of negotiations, the US government on Friday approved a $23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Türkiye, after Ankara ratified Sweden's NATO membership, which was an urgent American demand.

As required by US law, the State Department notified Congress of the agreement, as well as a separate $8 billion sale of 40 F-35s to Greece.

Türkiye will get 40 new F-16s and upgrades to 79 of the jets in its existing fleet, the State Department said in a statement.

The US did not green-light the transaction until Türkiye's instruments of ratification of Sweden's membership had arrived in Washington, a US official said.

Türkiye's parliament ratified Sweden's NATO membership on Tuesday after more than a year of delays that upset Western efforts to show resolve in the face of Russia's war on Ukraine.

Erdogan signed the membership instrument only 48 hours after the parliament’s approval, and 24 hours after Biden sent a letter to key lawmakers urging Congress to proceed with the sale to Türkiye.

The F-16 deal has been a thorny issue in the Ankara-Washington relations, marred by years of tension. This rift emerged when the US withheld the transfer of advanced F-35 stealth fighters to Türkiye, citing concerns over its acquisition of the Russian S-400 missile air defense system.



Israeli Army Orders Gaza City Suburb Evacuated, Spurring New Displacement Wave

A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Israeli Army Orders Gaza City Suburb Evacuated, Spurring New Displacement Wave

A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian man points at a damaged building in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on November 20, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas movement. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.
The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
"For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south," the military's post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas' armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday's early hours, residents and Palestinian media said - the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.
In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the urban camps of Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij since Saturday night.
HOSPITAL DIRECTOR WOUNDED BY GUNFIRE
In north Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating against regrouping Hamas militants since early last month, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.
"This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost," Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.
"We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us...," he said from his hospital bed.
Israeli forces say armed militants use civilian buildings including housing blocks, hospitals and schools for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminately targeting populated areas.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said the Israeli forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them.
In the past few weeks, Israel said it had facilitated the delivery of medical and fuel supplies and the transfer of patients from north Gaza hospitals in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Residents in three embattled north Gaza towns - Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun - said Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses since renewing operations in an area that Israel said months ago had been cleared of militants.
Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, an accusation Israel denies.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, uprooted nearly all the enclave's 2.3 million population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing wide swathes of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
The war erupted in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023 in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.