(Adnkronos) – “The ‘vision’ of the ‘Mecca Agreement’ announced last Friday by the three countries, a result of the ‘new circumstances imposed by developments in our region’, is ‘not limited’ to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, insists on this, aiming to expand the agreement. ‘Our vision is not limited to the three countries,’ he said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. ‘We hope it grows.’ With the hope of one day involving ‘all countries in the region.’ This would be, for Erdogan, ‘the most important step towards lasting stability in the region.'”
Erdogan’s words come on the eve of the mission to Egypt by the head of Turkish diplomacy, Hakan Fidan, who has already expressed hope for Cairo’s accession. Ankara, he reiterated, “has always preferred diplomatic solutions over escalation, dialogue over conflict, and greater cooperation in the region over divisions.” “We know very well that solutions imported from abroad only bring disasters,” he urged. “The problems of the region should be solved by the actors of the region itself.” And, he insisted, “the future of the region cannot be defined independently of the will of its countries.”
