Baku, TurkicWorld:

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan on Jan. 5, on the first leg of his Middle East trip to discuss the Gaza war, TurkicWorld reports citing Hurriyet Daily News.

The meeting between Fidan and Blinken at Vahdettin Mansion in Istanbul lasted approximately two hours.

A statement was not issued following the meeting.

Fidan and Blinken had a number of telephonic and in-person meetings since the beginning of the crisis in the Middle East on Oct. 7 last year. Blinken’s Istanbul visit will be his second one in Türkiye in the same period.

Türkiye has long been pressing on the U.S. to stop its support for the Israeli offensive that has killed more than 22,000 civilians so far and launch a campaign for a ceasefire to be followed by efforts to reach a lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian question on the basis of a two-state solution.

Blinken’s Middle East trip will also include Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt to hold talks on a “number of critical issues,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.

In Türkiye, Blinken will also discuss regional cooperation, including final steps to complete Türkiye's ratification of Sweden's accession to NATO, Miller said.

In Greece, he will focus on support for Ukraine and safeguarding regional maritime security, he added.

During the Middle East tour, one of the main points of discussion will be "immediate measures to increase substantially humanitarian assistance to Gaza," where the World Health Organization has warned of the risk of famine and disease.

"We don't expect every conversation on this trip to be easy. There are obviously tough issues facing the region and difficult choices ahead," Miller stated.

"But the secretary believes it is the responsibility of the United States of America to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle those challenges head on," he said.

Blinken on previous trips sought to keep the war isolated in Gaza. But he returns to a region that has seen attacks in or from Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Iran.

The American top diplomat is also likely to press Israel to stop blocking the transfer of tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority, a longstanding arrangement that is opposed by Israel's far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich.

Washington sees a future in the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian Authority, whose ruling Fatah faction is the rival of Hamas, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long sought to weaken the semi-autonomous body and opposes the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.