Türkiye Lashes Out at Tel Aviv, Criticizes US Support

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, right, speaks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, center, as they attend a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. AP
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, right, speaks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, center, as they attend a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. AP
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Türkiye Lashes Out at Tel Aviv, Criticizes US Support

Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, right, speaks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, center, as they attend a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. AP
Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, right, speaks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, center, as they attend a meeting for talks on the Middle East in Brussels, Sunday, May 26, 2024. AP

Türkiye has again criticized the United States for supporting Israel in committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, and most recently its deadly attack on displaced Palestinians in Rafah.

“We wholeheartedly believe that Israel’s genocide will not be left unpunished by international law and human conscience,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters at a joint news conference with his Cambodian counterpart Sok Chenda Sophea in Ankara.

Fidan said that by attacking the southern Gaza city of Rafah, Israel is pursuing the most possible inhumane acts.

The Minister said that had it not been for the “unconditional” support of Western countries, particularly the US, Israel would not have been able to commit a genocide in Gaza in the first place and perpetuate it.

“Welcoming the genocide of a nation under the pretext of maintaining Israel’s security or defense is unacceptable. Türkiye will do its best to stop the massacre of people in Gaza,” the FM said.

Later, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Fidan will visit Madrid on Wednesday on the occasion of Spain’s official recognition of Palestine as a state.

The Minister will be visiting Madrid together with the members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and Arab League Contact Group on Gaza that was held in Saudi Arabia.

The meetings will focus on the efforts to achieve a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to encourage more countries to recognize the State of Palestine based on a two-state solution.

Late on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez spoke over the phone and discussed Spain’s decision to recognize Palestine as a state, and the need to reach a peace agreement that ends violence in Gaza.

“There are no words to describe the dramatic nature of what is happening in Gaza right now, and we hope that, with Türkiye’s contributions, this tragedy will be brought to an end,” said Chenda Sophea during the press conference with Fidan.

On Monday, Türkiye criticized comments by Israeli Foreign Minister Katz, who described Erdogan as a “dictator.”

“The disrespectful tone and baseless accusations against President Erdogan are a futile attempt to change the agenda about Israel's crimes in Palestine,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“It is the Netanyahu government that has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians since October and barbarically massacred dozens of innocent Palestinians in an attack on a tent camp last night. All those who are complicit in these crimes will be brought to justice before international courts,” it added.

“As Türkiye, we will continue to advocate for justice and the rights of Palestinians,” the Ministry said.

Katz’ harsh criticism of the Turkish President came after the latter said on Monday that Ankara would do “everything possible to hold these barbarians and murderers, who have nothing to do with humanity, to account.”

Katz tweeted that it is “dictator” Erdogan himself who should be accused of genocide, accusing him of murdering Kurdish citizens, occupying the north of Cyprus and committing crimes against humanity.

Israel’s airstrikes in western Rafah sparked nationwide protests in Türkiye, demanding a complete severing of relations with Israel.



Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
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Iran Says Could Abandon Nuclear Weapons But Has Conditions

A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)
A sample of the surveillance cameras that monitor the Iranian nuclear facilities presented at a press conference in Vienna. (Reuters)

Iran on Saturday hinted it would be willing to negotiate on a nuclear agreement with the upcoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, but that it has conditions.
Last Thursday, the UN atomic watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors passed a resolution ordering Iran to urgently improve cooperation with the agency and requesting a “comprehensive” report aimed at pressuring Iran into fresh nuclear talks.
Ali Larijani, advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Iran and the US are now in a new position concerning the nuclear file.
In a post on X, he said, “If the current US administration say they are only against Iran’s nuclear weapons, they must accept Iran’s conditions and provide compensation for the damages caused.”

He added, “The US should accept the necessary conditions... so that a new agreement can be reached.”
Larijani stated that Washington withdrew from the JCPOA, thus causing damage to Iran, adding that his country started increasing its production of 60% enriched uranium.
The Iran nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached to limit the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The deal began unraveling in 2018, when Washington, under Trump’s first administration, unilaterally withdrew from the accord and re-imposed a sanction regime of “maximum pressure” on Tehran.
In retaliation, Iran has rapidly ramped up its nuclear activities, including by increasing its stockpiles of enriched uranium to 60% — close to the 90% threshold required to develop a nuclear bomb.
It also began gradually rolling back some of its commitments by increasing its uranium stockpiles and enriching beyond the 3.67% purity -- enough for nuclear power stations -- permitted under the deal.
Since 2021, Tehran has significantly decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices to monitor the nuclear program and barring UN inspectors.
Most recently, Iran escalated its confrontations with the Agency by announcing it would launch a series of “new and advanced” centrifuges. Its move came in response to a resolution adopted by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that censures Tehran for what the agency called lack of cooperation.
Centrifuges are the machines that enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235).
Shortly after the IAEA passed its resolution last Thursday, Tehran spoke about the “dual role” of IAEA’s chief, Raphael Grossi.
Chairman of the Iranian Parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Ebrahim Azizi said, “The statements made by Grossi in Tehran do not match his actions in Vienna.”
And contrary to the statements of Azizi, who denied his country’s plans to build nuclear weapons, Tehran did not originally want to freeze its uranium stockpile enriched to 60%
According to the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kg of uranium enriched to 60% is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible. The 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
Spokesperson and deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Friday that IAEA inspectors were scheduled to come immediately after the meeting of the Board of Governors to evaluate Iran’s capacity, “with those capacities remaining for a month without any interruption in enrichment at 60% purity.”
Iran’s news agency, Tasnim, quoted Kamalvandi as saying that “the pressures resulting from the IAEA resolution are counterproductive, meaning that they increase our ability to enrich.”
He added: “Currently, not only have we not stopped enrichment, but we have orders to increase the speed, and we are gradually working on that."