Erdoğan to hold security meeting amid ongoing tensions
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attends a joint news conference with the Hungarian Prime Minister after talks at the prime minister's office at the Carmelite Monastery in Budapest, Hungary, on Dec.18, 2023. (AFP File Photo)


President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will chair a critical security meeting in Istanbul on Saturday, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, Chief of Staff Gen. Metin Gürak and the head of the National Intelligence Agency Ibrahim Kalın will attend the meeting, which will take place at 14:30 local time (11:30 a.m. GMT) at the Dolmabahçe Office in Beşiktaş.

The unexpected security meeting comes shortly after six Turkish soldiers were martyred, seven others were injured in attacks by the PKK terrorists in Operation Claw-Lock region in northern Iraq on Friday.

Regional tensions have also flared amid Israel’s relentless attacks against Palestinians and the tensions in Red Sea. Fears of a wider conflict have gripped the Middle East after U.S. and British forces carried out airstrikes early Thursday on Yemen's Houthi rebels over their attacks on Red Sea shipping.

President Erdoğan condemned the airstrikes, saying the attack would turn the Red Sea into a "bloodbath."