President Gul holds meeting with Erdogan, Babacan on Israeli attacks in Gaza

President Abdullah Gul, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan yesterday held a meeting at the Cankaya Presidential Palace to discuss the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza. A statement after the meeting said they had decided that Babacan would visit New York to attend a meeting at the UN and that Ahmet Davutoglu, Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser, would travel to Damascus to hold talks at the request of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who will also be visiting Syria. In related news, Erdogan telephoned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi and British counterpart Gordon Brown. During the conversations, Erdogan told the leaders about his recent Middle East shuttle tour, and they resolved to step up efforts on the issue. For his part, Babacan telephoned his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice and British counterpart David Miliband.