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Erdogan Says 'No' to Sweden and Finland's NATO Bid

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
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Erdogan Says 'No' to Sweden and Finland's NATO Bid

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, February 3, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Turkey will oppose Sweden and Finland joining NATO, the country's president flatly stated in a video released Thursday.

“We have told our relevant friends we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden’s entry into NATO, and we will continue on our path like this,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of Turkish youth in the video for Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, a national holiday.

Turkey’s approval of Finland and Sweden's application to join the Western military alliance is crucial because NATO makes decisions by consensus. Each of its 30 member countries has the power to veto a membership bid.

Erdogan has said Turkey's objection stems from grievances with Sweden's - and to a lesser degree with Finland’s - perceived support of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and an armed group in Syria that Turkey sees as an extension of the PKK.

Turkey also accuses Sweden and Finland of harboring the followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish government blames for 2016 military coup attempt.

In the remarks, Erdogan accused the two prospective NATO members and especially Sweden of being “a focus of terror, home to terror.”

He accused them of giving financial and weapons support to the armed groups, and claimed the countries' alleged links to terror organizations meant they should not be part of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

The United States struggled Wednesday to get clarity from Turkey over the severity of its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

In a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the United Nations, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu offered mixed signals. He affirmed his country’s support for NATO’s “open-door” policy and its understanding of Finland and Sweden's desire to join the alliance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. But he also repeated Erdogan’s demands that Turkey’s security concerns about the candidate nations be addressed.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Berlin on Sunday after discussions with Turkish officials that “Turkey has made it clear that their intention is not to block membership.” Meanwhile, Blinken and other foreign ministers, including Germany’s top diplomat, Annalena Baerbock, expressed absolute confidence that all NATO members, including Turkey, would welcome the two newcomers.

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World

Iran FM Says ‘Security Breach’ Led to Khamenei’s Assassination

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations, aside of US-Iran talks in Geneva, Switzerland, February 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations, aside of US-Iran talks in Geneva, Switzerland, February 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Iran FM Says ‘Security Breach’ Led to Khamenei’s Assassination

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations, aside of US-Iran talks in Geneva, Switzerland, February 17, 2026. (Reuters)
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Conference on Disarmament at the United Nations, aside of US-Iran talks in Geneva, Switzerland, February 17, 2026. (Reuters)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the February 28 strike that killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei revealed a security breach at the highest levels of power that probably “still exists.”

“Within seconds, three attacks targeted the command center in the Pasteur region, which holds the offices and headquarters of Iran’s Supreme Leader,” Araghchi said in a wide-ranging television interview with conservative pro-government media activist Javad Moghayi.

A number of senior Iranian political and military figures were killed on the first day of the US-Israel war, including Khamenei.

“The crucial point, in my view, is that (the US and Israel) knew about these meetings,” Araghchi said. “That possibly points to a security breach that existed and probably still exists.”

He said the problem was not limited to infiltration. “Sometimes it also involves influencing the direction of decision-making processes,” Araghchi said, adding: “I don't wish to say any more about that publicly.”

The FM also said he did not meet with new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in person. “Only a handful of people have met him.”

He explained that at the time of the strike, Ali Khamenei was in his office, the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations was holding its weekly meeting, and the Defense Council had also convened.

“They knew that the Supreme Leader (Ali Khamenei) was in the office every morning. As I understand it, the command center meeting was also being held two or three buildings away, and they chose exactly that moment. An Intelligence Ministry meeting was also taking place at that time,” he said.

Araghchi said he told President Masoud Pezeshkian on the morning of February 28 that “the atmosphere is war.” He said that he then met with Khamenei aide Ali Asghar Mir Hejazi shortly after Israel carried out the deadly attack on a Tehran compound where Khamenei was having his high-level meeting.

Araghchi said that during the war, he and his colleagues remained at the Foreign Ministry. “During the 40-day war, my deputies, colleagues, and I did not leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. There was no safe place,” he said.

Araghchi also revealed that he met with Pezeshkian three days after the outbreak of the war, consulted Ali Larijani five days later, and held an official meeting on the sixth day in a safe location.

World

Russian President Putin Meets with North Korean FM in Latest High-Level Diplomacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui shake hands during a meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 19 July 2026. (EPA/Alexander Shcherbak / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui shake hands during a meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 19 July 2026. (EPA/Alexander Shcherbak / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool)
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Russian President Putin Meets with North Korean FM in Latest High-Level Diplomacy

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui shake hands during a meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 19 July 2026. (EPA/Alexander Shcherbak / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui shake hands during a meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, 19 July 2026. (EPA/Alexander Shcherbak / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool)

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korea’s foreign minister and thanked Pyongyang for supporting his war against Ukraine, in the latest high-level diplomacy between the countries, Russian state media reported.

The visit by North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui comes without an obvious occasion, such as a multilateral diplomatic event or state anniversary, and has raised speculation that she may be coordinating a possible visit to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korean state media said Choe departed for Russia on Saturday at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov but has yet to comment on the purpose of her visit.

Yoon Min Ho, spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles affairs related to North Korea, said Monday that Seoul was closely monitoring the meetings but declined to assess whether Moscow and Pyongyang were discussing another summit between their leaders.

Russia’s Tass news agency said Putin during his meeting with Choe at the Kremlin on Sunday praised the countries’ bilateral relations and reiterated his “gratitude to the North Korean leadership and people” for supporting his military operations against Ukraine.

Choe told Putin that Kim remains committed to the “comprehensive development” of relations with Russia, Tass said.

Kim traveled to Russia’s Far East for summits with Putin in 2019 and 2023. Putin invited Kim to visit Russia again during their summit in Pyongyang in June 2024, where the leaders signed a strategic partnership agreement pledging mutual aid if either country faces aggression.

Kim in recent years has made Russia the priority of his foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and huge supplies of weapons to support Putin’s war in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for economic aid and technology transfers that some experts say are helping advance North Korea’s military capabilities.

Kim has also been seeking stronger ties with China, including hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping for a June summit in Pyongyang, as he embraces the idea of a “new Cold War” and projecting Pyongyang as part of a united front against Washington.

Choe’s visit to Moscow came shortly after North Korea and China exchanged high-level visits, with North Korean Cabinet premier, Pak Thae Song, Kim’s top economic official, meeting Xi in Beijing and Wang Huning, a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s powerful Politburo Standing Committee, visiting Kim in Pyongyang this month.

Kim has suspended all meaningful dialogue with the United States and South Korea since the collapse of his nuclear diplomacy with US President Donald Trump in 2019.

He has used Russia’s war on Ukraine as a distraction to accelerate the advancement of his nuclear weapons and missile program, while demanding that Washington abandon its calls for North Korea’s nuclear disarmament as a precondition for talks.

World

Rubio Says Iran Using Hormuz as Leverage

A vessel at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, July 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A vessel at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, July 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rubio Says Iran Using Hormuz as Leverage

A vessel at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, July 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A vessel at the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, July 17, 2026. (Reuters)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Iran is using the Strait of Hormuz as leverage in the ongoing Middle East conflict, adding that other countries needed to step up pressure to protect global shipping.

"It's clear that Iran, at least some people in Iran, want to control the straits and hold that as leverage against the world," Rubio told reporters ahead of traveling to the Philippines for a meeting of foreign ministers with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"The United States will do and continue to do what it needs to, to protect global shipping, but other countries need to begin to step up and provide, whether it's hardware or finances, to help carry that burden," he continued.

When asked if there was still a diplomatic off-ramp to the escalating conflict, Rubio said: "I think we're always open to diplomacy. It has to be real. It has to be a deal that they're willing to live by."

A fragile truce between Iran and the United States broke down after reported attacks by Iran on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical international waterway through which a fifth of the global oil and gas supply transited prior to the war.

"They can't have an MoU that's alive if they're violating the terms of it," Rubio said.

"What I will say is that the United States always remains open to a diplomatic solution. We've tried multiple times with Iran, and we'll continue to try."