If the Middle East war spreads, it could create a "permanent" refugee crisis, Türkiye’s top diplomat warned Tuesday as Lebanon said Israel's bombardment had displaced over a million people.
"If the war... spreads, there is a possibility this will turn into a permanent refugee crisis with refugees seeking shelter outside the borders of their countries," Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told a joint news conference with his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand.
"This needs to stop as soon as possible."
Lebanon was dragged into the Middle East war on March 2 when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei during the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
Since then, more than one million people have registered as displaced, the Lebanese authorities said on Monday -- representing more than a sixth of its entire population.
The news came as Israel's military said it had launched a limited ground operation against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
"The humanitarian situation is deeply concerning in Lebanon and has the potential to worsen if there is a ground offensive there," Anand told the news conference.
Fidan said the war "could lead to permanent damage.. between countries of the region" pointing to the conflict "spreading across Lebanon, and things also becoming much more complicated in Iraq."
He said Türkiye had been "working very hard diplomatically since the outbreak of the war to prevent these crises from escalating", saying he would travel to several countries in the region on Wednesday.
Anand said Canada appreciated Türkiye’s diplomatic efforts and its "role as an interlocutor in the current Middle East conflict" while also expressing its resolute opposition to Iran's "reprehensible" strikes on regional nations.
"Canada absolutely condemns those retaliatory strikes.. Those retaliatory strikes must stop, whether they are in Doha or even against this very country," she said.
