BY ALLEN YEKIKAN

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on Tuesday hailed what he called progress in the ongoing talks to normalize his country's strained relations with Armenia. His remarks come amid growing concern in Yerevan that Ankara's increasingly uncompromising preconditions on Armenia may be guiding the negotiations in an untenable direction.

It is hard to imagine how much worse the situation could get, but the confrontation in Gaza could see a dangerous escalation in the coming days as Iran threatens to break the Israeli blockade and deliver urgently needed medical supplies and other aid to the coastal strip.