Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was expected to fly to Turkey for twice-delayed talks aimed at ironing out past differences and trying to halt the spread of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, AFP reports.

Raisi’s visit to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes with the bombardment in Gaza starting to enflame tensions and escalate fighting across the Middle East.

The rapid pace of the Middle East escalation forced Raisi to delay his visit to Ankara twice.

His planned talks in Ankara in early January were called off when twin blasts claimed by Islamic State group jihadists killed 89 people at the shrine of assassinated Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general Qasem Soleimani.

A trip he had planned for November was cancelled because of conflicting schedules of diplomats involved in consultations over the Gaza war.