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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday in New York, with the two leaders discussing a range of regional and global issues, Türkiye's Communications Directorate said in a statement.
The closed-door meeting at UN headquarters followed Erdogan's address to the 81st session of the UN General Assembly. It came as Guterres' tenure as secretary-general nears its end, and Erdogan told him that Türkiye had worked closely with him "on a range of issues concerning global peace and security," according to the statement.
Erdogan told Guterres that Israel's "lack of willingness" to pursue peace in Gaza had "once again become apparent." He said attacks by settlers in the occupied West Bank, along with assaults on holy sites in Jerusalem, had "further worsened" the situation on the ground, and stressed the need to preserve the basis for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The two-state framework, long treated as the internationally backed template for resolving the conflict, envisions an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel.
Turning to other conflicts, Erdogan said tensions surrounding Iran and Ukraine needed to be reduced, adding that Türkiye was working to support the diplomatic process in both cases. He said a process emerging from within the region could prove beneficial with respect to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which much of the world's oil trade passes.
On the Black Sea, Erdogan said Türkiye expected all parties to act responsibly to ensure the safety of navigation, and voiced concern over commercial vessels being targeted in the waterway.
Erdogan also addressed the decades-long division of Cyprus, telling Guterres that no proposal would produce results unless it recognized "the sovereign equality and equal international status" of the Turkish Cypriot people. Cyprus has been split since 1974 between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which only Türkiye recognizes, in the north.
For its part, the United Nations said in a statement that Guterres and Erdogan exchanged views on Cyprus, the war in Ukraine and the broader situation across the Middle East.
The Turkish delegation at the meeting included Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Türkiye's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ahmet Yildiz, Ambassador Mehmet Gulluoglu and Mehdi Eker, a member of the Presidential Board of Agriculture and Food Policies.
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