UPDATE - Turkish foreign minister holds talks in New York on sidelines of UN meeting

ADDS MORE SIDELINE MEETINGS; CHANGES DECK

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is holding closed-door talks Tuesday in New York on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting.

Fidan will later address the Council’s meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.

Ahead of the high-level Security Council session, Fidan met with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, at the Turkish House in New York.

Fidan also held a closed-door meeting with Geir Pedersen, the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Syria, at the Turkish House.

He also received a delegation from the Turkish American National Steering Committee there. The Turkish Foreign Ministry did not provide information about the closed-door meeting.

Fidan also met with Abdallah Bouhabib, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of Lebanon, in New York.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefed the Council meeting, which included senior foreign ministers and ambassadors from the 15 Council members, together with other nations that will have their say on the deepening crisis in the Gaza Strip, which is facing a humanitarian crisis from Israel’s unrelenting military operation, mounting death toll, and escalating calls for an immediate cease-fire.

Fidan separately met with Guterres and Stephane Sejourne, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, the current president of the UN Security Council.

He also held a closed-door meeting with his Algerian counterpart Ahmed Attaf in New York.

- 'We have an historical responsibility to stop this war'

During his speech at the Security Council, Fidan slammed the international community for not stopping the war against the Gaza Strip and voiced concern over its spillover effect to the region.

"One hundred and nine days into the conflict, it is a shame that the international community is still unable to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and the West Bank.

"Gaza used to be an open prison. Now it is a battleground where the Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) runs military operations for killing civilians to extend his political life," he told the Council.

Warning against the risks of a spillover effect of the war, he urged Israel and its supporters to seek a diplomatic solution while it is still achievable.

"The ongoing war in Gaza and beyond cannot lead to a peace nor to submission. We have a historical responsibility to stop this war," said Fidan.

Israel has pounded Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7, killing at least 25,295 Palestinians and injuring 63,000. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.