ANKARA- Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul agreed here on Tuesday to work together for solving the problems of the Middle East region at the core of which is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The two countries share interest in a host of issues on top of which are the Middle East peace process and the situations in Iraq and Yemen, Mubarak said in a joint press conference here this evening after the summit talks with Gul.
Turkey is a major power in the region which has interest in the peace process, Mubarak said, appreciating Turkey's "constructive role" in the dialogue among the Palestinian factions.
Turkey's mediation efforts between the Palestinians and Israel on one hand and among the Palestinian factions have drawn large-scale appraisal, he said.
Regarding the Israeli malpractices in the occupied Palestinian territories, he said Egypt and Turkey have identical views on the Israeli policies.
"The Jewish settlement activities in the occupied West Bank and the persistent blockade on Gaza Strip risk undermine the Middle East peace process. Egypt and Turkey have repeatedly sounded the alarm against these Israeli malpractices," Mubarak reminded. "The talks with President Gul assessed prospects of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. We have agreed to lobby for a peaceful, fair and comprehensive settlement to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"The talks also dealt with the situation in Iraq on the advent of the legislative elections - due in January, 2010, and the Iranian nuclear ambitions as well as the ongoing violence in between the Yemeni government forces and the Houthi rebels," Mubarak disclosed.
On his part, Gul said the Palestine question is a top priority in the foreign policies of Turkey and Egypt.
He hailed the rapidly growing economic and commercial ties in the recent years, noting that the bilateral trade volume topped three billion US dollars in 2009 thanks to the free trade agreement the two countries signed three years ago.
Mubarak invited the Turkish leader to attend the activities of the New Bibliotheca Alexandrina to be held in the Egyptian Mediterranean city in March, 2010, as part of the Alliance of Civilization (AoC) - a joint Turkish-Spanish initiative under the auspices of the United Nations formed in 2005 by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to explore the roots of polarization between societies and cultures today.
The Egyptian leader arrived here earlier in the day for a three-day working visit to Turkey as part of a European tour which took him to France and includes Denmark as well.