Türkiye's Foreign Minister to Visit Iraq to Discuss Kurdish Militants and Security

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Türkiye's Foreign Minister to Visit Iraq to Discuss Kurdish Militants and Security

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during a joint press conference with Sweden's Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard and Sweden's Minister of Justice Gunnar Strommer (both not pictured) in Ankara, Türkiye, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will visit Iraq on Sunday for talks with officials on the fight against Kurdish militants, security issues and bilateral ties, a Turkish diplomatic source said on Saturday.

Ties between the neighbors have been rocky in recent years due to Ankara's cross-border military operations against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants based in northern Iraq's mountainous regions.

However, they have improved since Baghdad labelled the group a "banned organization" last year and the countries agreed to hold high-level security talks.

Fidan's visit comes amid repeated calls from Türkiye for the Kurdish YPG militia in northeastern Syria to disband following the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last month, with Ankara warning of a new incursion unless its concerns are addressed.

The YPG spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Türkiye deems them terrorists that are an extension of the PKK, which the West also considers a terrorist organization.

The source said Fidan would meet Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, and other Iraqi officials during the visit, adding he would repeat Ankara's expectation for Iraq to label the PKK a terrorist organization and remove it from its lands.

Fidan will emphasize the need for regional countries "to act together against this terrorist organization's attempts to gain legitimacy and ground," the source said, with bilateral ties and trade also be on the agenda.

On Thursday, Hussein said Türkiye attacking Kurdish forces in northern Syria would be dangerous and create more refugees.

Since Assad's toppling by an administration friendly towards Ankara, Syria's Kurdish factions have been on the back foot, and negotiators from the United States, Türkiye, Damascus and the SDF have been zeroing in on a potential deal on the group's fate.

Fidan's visit also comes amid a domestic political effort to end the decades-old conflict between Türkiye and the PKK.



Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza on March 4

18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Egypt to Host Emergency Arab Summit on Gaza on March 4

18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
18 February 2025, Palestinian Territories, Jabalia: A Palestinian sits by a fire outside his tent as people camp amid the ruins of their houses in Jabalia, after returning to northern Gaza during a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas. Photo: Omar Ashtawy/APA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Egypt will host an emergency Arab summit on March 4 to discuss the developments of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Egyptian foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing Palestinians out of the strip in a counter to President Donald Trump’s proposal to depopulate the territory so the US can take it over.
The proposal comes after an international uproar over Trump’s call for the removal of Gaza’s population of some 2 million Palestinians. Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip and rebuild it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” though Palestinians would not be allowed back.

Palestinians have widely said they will not leave their homeland while Egypt and Jordan have refused Trump’s calls for them to take in Gaza’s population.