The new Israeli-Palestinian flare-up, bursting out right in the midst of Turkey’s quest to mend ties with Israel and Arab rivals, has opened up space for Ankara to seek diplomatic influence in the region. But any gains it could make in the process are likely to be limited now that it has lost much of its leverage vis-a-vis Arab heavyweights and Israel.

The efficiency of Ankara’s diplomacy on the Palestinian question is open to argument, but the escalation in the Holy Land did help it break its diplomatic isolation to some extent.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has had a flurry of phone calls with regional leaders since the unrest erupted last week, urging “the world and Muslim nations in particular to take efficient action against Israel’s attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem and Palestinian homes.” Erdogan reasserted support for the Palestinians in calls with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In a bid to mobilize international action against Israel, he spoke also to the presidents of Algeria, Indonesia and Russia, the king of Jordan, the emir of Kuwait and Pakistan’s prime minister.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu — who was on a fence-mending trip to Riyadh May 11-12 following the first high-level Turkish-Egyptian talks in eight years — had phone calls with his counterparts from Algeria, Iran, Morocco, Pakistan, Russia and Tunisia. Ankara, he said, is seeking to mobilize the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the UN General Assembly to respond to Israel’s actions.