(Bloomberg) -- Recep Tayyip Erdogan can expect “harsh criticism” from Olaf Scholz over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war when he meets with the German chancellor in Berlin on Friday, according to a senior member of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party.

The Turkish president has defended Hamas — which is designated a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US and is committed to Israel’s destruction. In a speech to members of the ruling AK Party in Ankara this week, he called Israel “a terrorist state.”

“With regard to Hamas there is no common ground and we will see to which extent Erdogan’s posturing was tactical or a real political conviction,” Nils Schmid, foreign affairs spokesman for the SPD caucus in the lower house of parliament, said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

“We’ve seen similar outbursts by Erdogan in the past and after some time he came back to a very pragmatic approach, normalizing ties with Israel and so on,” Schmid said. “But on the substance this is a profound divergence and Erdogan will face some harsh criticism by Scholz.”

Erdogan is due to hold talks later on Friday with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, before he meets with Scholz over dinner at the chancellery.

The two leaders will discuss issues including Turkey as a regional power, Sweden’s accession to NATO, Ukraine and the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the Middle East and migration, Scholz’s chief spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said this week.

Schmid said that it’s unlikely Germany will lift its veto on supplying Turkey with Eurofighter jets due both to strong opposition in the parliament in Berlin and the issue of Turkish military operations against SDF forces in northern Syria.

However, there could be agreement on other topics like immigration, where the two nations have “converging interests,” he added.

--With assistance from Verena Sepp and Beril Akman.

©2023 Bloomberg L.P.