Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was yesterday to arrive in Turkey for twice-delayed talks aimed at ironing out past differences and trying to halt the spread of the Israel-Hamas war, a day after the US military struck three facilities in Iraq and two-anti-ship missiles in Yemen operated by Iranian-backed militias.
Raisi’s visit to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes with the war in Gaza starting to enflame tensions and escalate fighting across the Middle East.
The UK and UK have stepped up joint airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in response to their attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Meanwhile Israel, has repeatedly targeted Tehran-linked figures in Syria and appears to be on the brink of launching a full-scale war against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Iran and Pakistan last week exchanged strikes against “militant” and “terrorist” targets and Turkey itself has intensified artillery and drone strikes against Kurdish groups in Syria and Iran.
The rapid pace of the Middle East escalation forced Raisi to delay his visit to Ankara twice.
Analysts say that the Gaza war has helped put regional disputes on the back burner and force the two leaders to seek a joint approach to the Middle East.
“It is possible that Raisi and Erdogan might declare some symbolic measure about Palestine out of the meeting,” Clemson University professor Arash Azizi said. “But I think their focus will be mostly on how to contain the conflict and make sure it doesn’t expand further, something that Ankara and Tehran both want.”
Meanwhile, the US strikes in Iraq and Yemen targeted sites that the Pentagon has said are involved in the attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria and were threatening US military and commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
In a statement on Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes in Iraq were at the direction of US President Joe Biden and targeted facilities used by the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah militia group and other Iran-affiliated groups in Iraq.
“These precision strikes are in direct response to a series of escalatory attacks against US and coalition personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-sponsored militias,” Austin said.
Late on Tuesday, the US Central Command announced it had also struck two Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed into the Southern Red Sea and were prepared to launch.
In Iraq, US strikes on the Kataib Hezbollah sites came hours after the US said that militants fired two one-way attack drones at al-Asad Air Base, injuring US service members and damaging infrastructure.
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