Turkey excluded from post-war Gaza conference in Doha due to Israeli veto: Report

Turkey has reportedly been excluded from a US-led military conference on post-war Gaza in Qatar, a move widely attributed to Israeli opposition, despite Ankara’s declared readiness to participate and its strong ties with Washington and Doha.

Turkey was not invited to a US Central Command-organized conference in Doha on Tuesday focused on a proposed "international stabilization force" for the besieged Gaza Strip, reported the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz, citing a Western diplomat and an Arab source close to Ankara.

The unnamed sources told the daily that Turkey's exclusion is linked to Israel's veto of its participation in the stabilization force.

“There is no other reason. Its relations with the US and Qatar are excellent,” said the Arab source, noting that Turkey was invited to the Sharm el-Sheikh peace summit in October.

“Turkey has signed the Sharm declaration and is ready to participate in the multinational force. The only party saying no is Israel,” the source stressed, adding that Doha and Ankara are currently exerting pressure on Washington to invite Turkey to the conference, which brings together representatives from more than 45 countries.

Western and Arab sources confirmed that Ankara was deliberately left out, even though Turkey has repeatedly been mentioned as a potential contributor to post-war arrangements in Gaza.

The exclusion comes amid intensive regional diplomacy, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with US Ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack in what an Israeli source described as a “good and productive” meeting.

At the same time, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani is expected in Washington this week, while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held phone talks with him focused on President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, recent developments in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, and the political implications of the US initiative.

The Doha meeting is described by Western diplomats as an interim, general-level conference with no binding decisions expected.

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Washington is set to outline further details of the so-called stabilization force and gauge countries’ willingness to participate, following an earlier meeting in the US and ahead of a more decisive gathering of army chiefs in January.

Italy, according to Haaretz, is so far the only country to have clearly committed to participating in the force and even informed the US of the number of troops it can allocate.

Invitees include Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Italy, and dozens of others across Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, including Kosovo, underscoring the breadth of participation.

Meanwhile, senior American officials are in the Israeli-occupied territories and Egypt to advance plans for Gaza’s future governance, including a technocratic Palestinian administration and the deployment of the so-called stabilization force.

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