ANKARA, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will represent Turkey’s president on U.S. President Donald Trump’s international “Board of Peace” initiative, a Turkish source told Reuters on Wednesday.
Trump had sent an invitation to President Tayyip Erdogan to become a member of the board, an initiative that initially aimed to end the conflict in Gaza but that Trump has said will resolve conflicts globally.
Trump is due to preside over a ceremony marking the “Board of Peace” on Thursday at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Hakan (Fidan) will join,” Erdogan told reporters in parliament on Wednesday when asked whether he accepted Trump’s invitation.
The White House had earlier announced that Fidan was a member of a separate “Gaza Executive Board”, along with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The Turkish source with knowledge of the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Fidan would also represent Erdogan at the leaders-level “Board of Peace”.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Fidan would attend the signing ceremony on Thursday.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Daren Butler, Jonathan Spicer and Alison Williams)
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