President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Türkiye stood in solidarity with Lebanon in light of growing tensions with Israel, and called on regional countries to also support Beirut.
Speaking in parliament, Erdogan said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu planned to spread the Gaza war to the region and that this would lead to a "catastrophe", adding the Western support for Israel was "pitiful.”
Israel’s low-level conflict with Lebanon’s Hezbollah has escalated in recent weeks, raising fears of an all-out war.
A senior Israeli official said Tuesday Israel and the United States will devote an unspecified number of weeks to trying to reach a new arrangement with Hezbollah before resorting to other means to bring calm to the Israel-Lebanon border.
“We will now dedicate long weeks ... in an attempt to reach an arrangement” along the border, National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said.
Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas shortly after the Palestinian militants’ Oct. 7 attack triggered the war in Gaza. Israel has responded with airstrikes.
