Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo Wednesday to discuss the Palestinian statehood bid at the UN next week, Egyptian newspaper
Al Masry Al Youm reported.
The Palestinian Authority's envoy to Cairo, Barak al-Farra, told reporters following the meeting that the two discussed "efforts by [Turkey] to support that [UN] bid."
RELATED:Erdoğan in Cairo: Israel is undermining its own legitimacy 'Palestinians still undecided on UN strategy'Abbas also thanked Turkey for its role in supporting the Palestinian national cause, Farra said.
Erdoğan - who was in Cairo on the
first leg of his so-called Arab Spring tour to forge stronger ties with Arab countries in the region - said Tuesday that support of Palestinian national independence was "not an option but an obligation."
Speaking to the Arab League, the Turkish prime minister said “Let’s
raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and
justice in the Middle East."
The Turkish prime minister was headed to Tunisia and Libya following his stay in Egypt.
Abbas was in Cairo to meet with EU foreign policy chief
Catherine Ashton - who was visiting Egypt her way to Israel - and to attend a
Arab League meeting Monday night.
That Arab League meeting was devoted to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis,
and occurred the week before Abbas goes to the UN to petition for
Palestinian statehood.