The prime minister of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked government, Hesham Kandil, declared this week that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be welcome to visit the Gaza Strip through the border crossing that Egypt controls into the territory.

“Our doors are going to be wide open for him of course,” Kandil told Hurriyet on Saturday.

“He [Erdogan] said he wants to come to Egypt and to go to Gaza. Of course, he’s going to have a very good experience because seeing things live is much different from watching or reading news pieces,” he was quoted as saying.

Erdogan has repeatedly annonuced his intention to travel to the Hamas-controlled territory in the middle of May, following a May 16 meeting in Washington, D.C. with President Barack Obama. The intended visit has been blasted by the U.S. State Department and the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority. Hamas meanwhile has celebrated it as the end of U.S. influence in the region. Effusive treatment of the trip by the Egyptian government may further strain relations between Cairo and the Obama administration.

[Photo: VideoNewsPortal / Youtube]