Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a news conference in New York after the 81st UN General Assembly. He said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with US President Donald Trump covered Gaza and the latest situation regarding tensions with Iran, adding: “Israel’s isolation in the international arena has increasingly grown. The oppression and massacres carried out by Israel no longer go unanswered as before.”
On Iraq, Fidan said Baghdad has set a political goal of disarming all armed groups, particularly the PKK and affiliated groups, “a vision we support.” As Iraq’s roadmap is implemented, he said, Türkiye will act to gradually reduce and end its presence there, referring to the Bashiqa base.
Fidan said talks had been held on the Mecca alliance, including military threats targeting Saudi Arabia. On Iran-US talks, he said: “The good thing is that efforts are continuing. The negative is that they have not yet produced a result,” adding that Ankara had discussed with US and Iranian counterparts how to prevent the war from spreading across the region.
Erdoğan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi met in New York on September 23 and agreed in a joint statement that the Bashiqa-Zilkan facility would be gradually handed over to Iraq’s federal government, in parallel with PKK-linked groups in Sinjar laying down their weapons.