Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared that Israel‘s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has become “the greatest disaster” for Israelis since the Holocaust, warning that the region is being pushed towards catastrophe and reiterating that Turkey will continue to strive for peace in the Middle East.
Speaking at an event in Ankara on the occasion of iftar – the meal that breaks the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – the Turkish leader stressed that Turkish position on Iran is “clear” and emphasised that Turkey is always on the side of peace, not war: “(Türkiye) stands for diplomacy, not conflict. It stands for peace and stability, not chaos and turmoil. It seeks rapprochement, not hostility,” he said in remarks reported by the Anatolia news agency.
The Turkish president stressed in this regard that his government is making “intensive efforts” to achieve a ceasefire and revive negotiations between the US, Israel and Iran: “We are trying to put out the fire before the flames grow more, before the ring of fire expands further and before more lives are damaged and more blood is spilled. We want the tears in our region to stop, the conflicts to end and peace and calm to prevail,” he declared.
Criticising the actions of the government of Israel, Erdoğan claimed that even Israeli citizens themselves are questioning their own leaders: “Even Israelis, who spend their nights in shelters, are now saying that Netanyahu is their biggest disaster since the Holocaust,” Erdoğan said, while warning that the region is gradually being dragged towards disaster by what he described as a “network of massacres driven by arrogance“.
No clear end to the war
The joint US-Israeli strikes against Iran, which began on 28 February, have already killed more than 1,300 people, including Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as well as more than 150 girls from a school that was bombed in the first strikes. According to a preliminary investigation published today in the New York Times, US military personnel were behind the massacre, initial findings of a US military report say.
In statements made in the last few hours to the US media, Trump – who said he was unaware of the report – affirmed that the end of the war is near: “Any time I want it to end, it will end“, he assured in a new twist that seems to respond to the pressures and criticism within the US. However, the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, also assured today that “this operation will continue without any time limit, as long as necessary”, in line with previous comments by Trump himself, who had previously indicated that the operation would last 4-5 weeks, although it could could go “far longer” if necessary.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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